Author Topic: A Rather Sketchy Top 50  (Read 12885 times)

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Offline Sketchy

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A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« on: April 28, 2013, 03:14:05 AM »
Ok, this is going to be a rather odd list, and it seems to me that this first post will be both entirely representative of what will follow and at the same time not at all representative. What do I mean by that? Well, there'll probably be a few things you hadn't quite expected, and probably a fair number of things you may absolutely hate. I think it's fair to say that a lot of the albums on here are here because of attatchement to them for some reason. A number of them do have a short story behind what makes them special for me. I'm not really sure quite how to introduce to you, but hopefully it'll eventually start to make sense, and hopefully for a fair amount of it, it will continue to surprise you.

Anyway, here we go:

50. Vi An - Compilation Vi-An (2011)



This one is a really rather beautiful album, but then that's sort of expected when the main instrument is a guzheng. I'm not really quite sure what to say about it, as it's pretty unique, certainly compared to the rest of my music collection. It's considerably more meditative than most, and I can't really ever remember much about it other than listening to it makes me feel really quite happy. It feels very organic, in a way. It's like sitting in some big, green forest, and just zoning out to the sounds of all the wildlife (which are probably getting mildly pissed off that this strange upright beast has wandered into their forest, sat down and is refusing to move).

I know this seems like a really wierd description, but it's probably the most descriptive thing I can really say about it, and I guess I like it for that uniquness. Hell, it's the only album I have which as throat singing pretty much throughout an entire track (as opposed to just one BWAARGH, awesome as though that BWAARGH is), but what would I reccomend from it?

Uh, good question. If I'm not allowed to say "all of it", I think I'd have to say: Once Hidden Now Appearing and also Innocence Is...

I think those two probably give the best idea of quite what is special about it. If you do go and listen to it, just don't listen to it when you're doing anything else, and if you like your music to hook pretty fast, I really don't think you'll like this one.

49. Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (1969)



Here’s an album which I enjoy on an occasional basis. It’s not really regular listening material, but then again, a lot of which follows I like to listen to as a rare treat. In a way, it almost preserves the special nature of them for when I am in exactly the mood which demands them.

I remember when I was sixteen, coming to the end of my compulsory time at school, one of my friends kept mentioning that I should check this one out. So, on my last compulsory day of school, I went down to the shop, I delved into my pocket, produced the device I use to store money (known as a wallet in some parts of the world) and I bought it. I got home from my extravagant purchasing activity and I put it in the hifi.

What does this album sound like? It sounds exactly like what it is: a lot of stoned people in different rooms, not necessarily playing the same song. What is so great about that? I don’t know exactly, but I love it. It’s entirely terrible and yet brilliant because of it. It’s punctuated occasionally by spoken word tracks which make entirely no sense, and I can’t help but smile. This album will almost certainly always have a place on this list.

Recommended tracks: Moonlight On Vermont, China Pig

48. Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention - You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 2 (1988)



Naturally, there had to be some Zappa here. This was recommended to me by the same friend who recommended Trout Mask Replica, only this time I bought it during my first year on a trip to Cambridge. Yes, most of these albums probably will have a bit of an anecdote behind them, I’m a bit sad like that, but it is part of what makes them special to me.

This is a live album which seems to consist of two discs of seemingly endless jamming. That’s not really a problem though, as the jamming contained is properly amazing, and when not playing an actual song, quite often the jamming has spoken parts over it (quite humourous ones too, it’s basically a comedy album with amazing music to justify its existence). The musicianship is quite astounding throughout, and well worth the listen.

I don’t think I really have much more to say about it other than that. It amazes me whenever I listen to it, and usually makes me laugh quite hard at the same time, hence why I think it deserves its place on this list.

Recommended tracks: Room Service, Inca Roads
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Offline Scorpion

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2013, 07:16:16 AM »
I don't know how much I'll know or I'll find interesting, but I'll follow. The cover of the Captain Beefheart album is pretty awesome.
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Offline Lolzeez

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #2 on: April 28, 2013, 07:18:49 AM »
I don't get what people really like about that Beefheart album...

Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2013, 07:47:09 AM »
To be perfectly honest, Lolzeez, neither do I. There's just something I like about it.
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Offline Silver Tears

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2013, 08:07:59 AM »
Will follow!

Offline LieLowTheWantedMan

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2013, 11:48:02 AM »
Love #49. :)

Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50: Not A Sound
« Reply #6 on: April 28, 2013, 11:53:38 PM »
Ok, here's the next installment of my top 50. Admittedly, the music in this post is largely quite different to the music in the previous post, and some of it, you still probably won't have heard of, although it'll be a lot more like what I guess you'll have been expecting on this thread.

47.   The Hoax – Humdinger (1997)



Here is an album I bought at a blues festival. I just remember this amazing electric blues band being on stage, playing in a manner that it just seemed that was just so carefree and so brilliant, with their guitarists just firing off these amazing solos at seemingly arbitrary points in the songs, and yet still managing to make that one of the things that made them so incredible. It turns out it was part of a reunion tour, after ten years of doing other things. They even did a cover of Come Together which grooved so hard that it was unreal. As a live band, the feel was totally electric.

And you know what, the album is exactly the same, only I can make out what the singer is singing (I was quite far back and things were a bit jumbled, and the five pints of mild didn’t help either). The songs still have these totally obnoxious solos being belted out at arbitrary points in a way that just makes the songs truly wonderful. It’s not a particularly weird album, but it is an incredibly fun one, and when I listen to it, all productivity goes out the window (unless you count over-exuberant air guitar as productive).

There is nothing I do not love about this album, and would heartily recommend it to anyone who likes all out insane on the groove front. The cover of Superstition on this album is also brilliant, with wah-guitar as the clavinet part and the bass feeling a lot more solid than it does on the original. This is most definite a highlight of my music collection.

Reccomended Tracks: High Expectations, Superstition

46.   Rush – A Farewell To Kings (1977)



Rush is a band I do enjoy a lot. Ideally, I’d have liked to include Hemispheres and had this album and that counting as a double, which would push this a lot higher, but to be fair, I love this album enough for it to have made this list on its own merit.

I do find that the way Cygnus X1 ends is a little sudden, which is why I’d have loved to have carried it on through Hemispheres,  which would have completed it, but this song has some wonderful moments too. I particularly love the track Xanadu for its feel and just the way it feels so impressive, even in the acoustic sections. Closer To The Heart and the title track are also wonderful, and really quite beautiful to my mind too.

I remember when I was getting into this album, I mentioned it to my father’s girlfriend, and she remembered (back in the day) buying the vinyl of this, and she too waxed lyrical about how the first song had this wonderful introduction which went on and on. This was most definitely an album I had not expected her to own or even to like, but it was just good to talk about it. I really like this album, and I think it is a masterpiece.

Recommended Tracks: Xanadu, A Farewell To Kings

45.   Steve Hackett – Voyage Of The Acolyte (1975)



This album is often regarded as the best album Genesis never made, and I can fully see why. A lot of it consisted of ideas that Hackett couldn’t get into actual Genesis albums, and fortunately, they ended up being used here. I remember my stepfather giving me a copy of this album, and it took me ages to get into it. Originally, only Ace Of Wands clicked, and I felt the rest was a little uneventful in comparison, although Ace was absolutely stellar. Eventually, the rest did also click, I think about the same sort of time I started to appreciate more acoustic and classical sides to music, and I am now convinced that the album is indeed fantastic.

The aforementioned Ace Of Wands begins the album in an absolute guitar-driven time-switch feast with Mike Rutherford doing Mike Rutherford things on the bass. There is a lot of acoustic work throughout the rest of this album, as well as a few silly moments (A Tower Struck Down, here’s looking at you), but then Shadow Of The Hierophant comes on. This last song, which thankfully, Hackett has begun playing live again, is mostly very acoustic, with occasional bursts of extreme grandiosity, building to a wonderful little section of fanfare-like melody which ends, allowing the finale to begin. The finale does one thing and one thing only. It builds. At the point it is now epic enough to be considered a really good finish, it keeps building. It gets to the point it is the most insane thing on the album, and it keeps building. The drums pretty much start soloing, it keeps building. Bass pedals kick in. The room is now shaking (certainly if played live, the room is rumbling so much it no longer makes sense), and the music keeps building.

It seems like a shame Shadow Of The Hierophant was left off Foxtrot, although to be fair, it just wouldn’t be right to have something on there which would have the potential to rival the end of Supper’s Ready just through sheer, mind-numbing pomp. By no means do I consider this quality a bad thing, if anything, it’s the main strength here.

Recommended Tracks: Ace Of Wands, Shadow Of The Hierophant
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Offline Zydar

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2013, 01:06:43 AM »
A Farewell To Kings :tup

I have to check out that Hackett album, since I love early Genesis. Can't believe I haven't done so yet.
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Offline ColdFireYYZ

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #8 on: April 29, 2013, 12:45:43 PM »
I've never heard of The Hoax, but A Farewell to Kings and Voyage of the Acolyte are great albums.

Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #9 on: April 29, 2013, 02:57:14 PM »
As I won't be up stupid early tomorrow (hopefully), here is another installment for today.

44.   Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel (meltyface) (1980)



This is another album my stepfather introduced me to. I will admit that a lot of my early influence in listening habits is due to his own record collection. This album is a very dark album, and because of the gated nature of a lot of the drums, feels very aggressive in the darkness. It is definitely more rhythmic than it is melodic, and hell, it has its creepy moments. Just listen to Intruder, and I think you’ll probably agree, it’s not recommended listening in the dark with headphones unless you really do want to feel rather uncomfortable.

I think this album shows Peter Gabriel’s strengths as a writer very well, and also Steve Lillywhite’s ability as a producer. The album may not be sonically shiny and slick, but with music like this, that is not what it needs. That rough sound fits the songs perfectly, and although there are few moments when any particular musician shines on this, as a whole, it becomes something complete, bleak and frankly, it can be pretty frightening at times.

Oh, that and Tony Levin lays down some nice stick grooves on I Don’t Remember, but just don't test a hifi with this album.

Recommended Tracks: I Don't Remember, Intruder

43.   Gazpacho – March Of Ghosts (2012)



Here’s one I got pretty recently compared to most on this list. I think the thing that made me put it on this list is how coherent it is as a whole. It flows as one big piece, but doesn’t feel like it’s one drawn out thing as a result. I often put it on and when it gets to the last song, I’m there thinking “oh crap, it’s finished already”, which is something to this album’s credit. It doesn’t make me lose attention, and hell, the atmospherics are lovely.

I’m very much impressed by the seamless transitions both between and within songs, and the moments that I particularly like are the bits in Golem where the guitar gets heavier, and then this strange acoustic staccato thing happens, and also the bit earlier on with the transition to the irish folk-dance. It’s a very cleverly written piece as a whole and I just love it.

Even on the first listen, however, one thing really struck me about the album. There is one moment, which for me, is what makes this album. The final song has this bit where it just has a great build up, and that’s what swayed me about it. I shall need to get more of this band.

Recommended Tracks: Golem, When Hell Freezes Over pt IV

https://42.   Caravan – In The Land Of Grey And Pink (1971)



This album was probably always going to appear on here, as it is a classic of the Canterbury scene, and so beautifully whimsical. It has its poppish moments, such as Golf Girl and Love To Love You, folkier moments, such as parts of Winter Wine, and some beautifully jazzy moments, such as the introduction to Nine Feet Underground, and the rest of Winter Wine.

I think the main two things you are most likely to notice about this album are the slightly psychedelic organ leads and Richard Sinclair’s bass. It’s clear that he is a very competent player, and in an album where there is a lot of space (as it’s far from a heavily layered sounding album), having the bass wandering all around in that manner really helps to make it feel complete.

Recommended Tracks: Winter Wine, Nine Feet Underground
« Last Edit: April 30, 2013, 12:14:00 AM by Sketchy »
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Offline ColdFireYYZ

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #10 on: April 29, 2013, 04:49:50 PM »
I got Melt from Goodwill recently, but I haven't listened to it yet. I'll definitely play it soon!

In The Land of Grey and Pink is one of my favorite albums. I love the poppy songs on the first side, but Nine Feet Underground is genius.

March of Ghosts is a good album, and Gazpacho is a fantastic band. However, Tick Tock is my favorite of theirs. Still, great pick! :tup

Offline LieLowTheWantedMan

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #11 on: April 29, 2013, 04:51:43 PM »
Love all 3. :heart

Offline Big Hath

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #12 on: April 29, 2013, 09:57:13 PM »
The Caravan album is #42 or is that an honorable mention?
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Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #13 on: April 30, 2013, 12:15:07 AM »
@ Big Hath: thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't realised I'd slammed the wrong tags around the title. (I guess I should use the preview function in future).

It is indeed # 42
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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50: I keep forgetting to update this title.
« Reply #14 on: May 01, 2013, 12:04:42 AM »
Ok, back to a few slightly unexpected things (maybe), after the last few of pretty much just prog.

41.   The Doors – LA Woman (1971)



This album is one I’ve liked for a long time for it groove-laden blues feel. I love how pretty much every track on this one is focussed on intense grooves, and some  fantastic soloing from Manzarek and Kreiger. It’s not got particularly complex music for the most part, but the music that is on it has a really good feel to it, and by this time, the band obviously gelled well together.

Naturally, one of the standout tracks for me is Riders On The Storm, as I just love the way it builds slowly, and also how the sounds of rain and thunder are used as fantastic background elements, while the jazzy Rhodes piano and guitar interlock to make the track really atmospheric. It’s just one of those songs that I love immensely, and it always makes me smile when I get to that point on the album.

Another of my favourites on the record, however, is The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat), which is a spoken word thing over an absolutely monster groove of the stomping variety. It’s got a really heavy and simple beat, with fantastic jamming occurring, but the prophetic/pseudo-messianic quality of Morrison’s voice just takes it to another level. As he spake thusly “no eternal reward can forgive us now for wasting the dawn”, and I tell you what, I’d happily waste every dawn listening to that song, although I perhaps wouldn’t be “stoned immaculate” like he suggests.

Edit - now including Reccomended Tracks: The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat), Riders On The Storm


40.   Xuefei Yang – 40 Degrees North (2008)




I love the classical guitar playing of Xuefei Yang. It seems a shame, though, that in later albums she’s largely neglected the Chinese pieces that she graced a lot of her earlier albums with, as I find them quite different, and that’s what I love this album for. Yes, she’s got the classical guitar standards, which she plays technically very well, but they are interspersed with some really wonderful Chinese traditional pieces, arranged for guitar. Those pieces, for me, are what makes this album special.

One of my favourite Chinese classical pieces is The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, which is just sublime melodically, and this album contains the first movement of it, which is probably by a long way the most well known, as quite often it seems that only the first section is recorded. This seems a bit of a shame, to me, as I love the whole piece, but I can imagine that it’s possible it might not work as well in its entirety.

Another wonderful piece on this album is Yi Dance, which is recorded also on the Xuefei album Si Ji (four seasons) in a shorter arrangement, but I think the arrangement on this album is considerably more pleasing. All in all, I like this album a lot just for the contrast of Chinese and western classical traditions, and I’d love it if she’d return to doing that.

Recommended Tracks: Yi Dance, The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto

39.   Yes – Tales From Topographic Oceans (1973)



And we’re back to the almost jazz-fusion style here with Yes’s Tales From Topographic Oceans. This album would probably merit consideration just for the cover art, and to be fair, the music is just something to seal the deal. This album is quite interesting from seeing what Yes had done beforehand. In previous albums, they’d been very much classical and tightly structured, which is something that they do very well to their credit. Then this album came along.

I know this album is one which divides Yes fans, and I can see why. In complete contrast to previous albums, this one is very loose and atmospheric. There aren’t really a large number of grand reprises, it’s just two LPs of straight up jazzy fusion jamming. As the previous entries on this list show, I’m very much into my jazzy side of music, more than the classical side (although I still like the classical side a lot).

This album is not so much one where there are specific tracks one would enjoy, rather some really standout moments, one of which is that solo in the first side. I remember the first time I heard this album, the hifi was playing up, so it kept fading in and out, but there was this one bit I had to listen to again, as I just heard what sounded like part of a really brilliant synth lead. So, I went back and listened, and that Wakeman solo just blew me away.

Recommended tracks: Ahahaha, yeah, about that. The whole thing.
« Last Edit: May 05, 2013, 02:05:48 AM by Sketchy »
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Offline ColdFireYYZ

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #15 on: May 01, 2013, 03:06:00 PM »
I'm not that big of a Doors fan, but there are a lot of great songs on that album. The WASP is one of my favorites.

I hated Tales From Topographic Oceans at first. After several listens, I really started to enjoy and appreciate it. It's not an album that I listen to regularly, but I do like it very much now.

I've never heard of Xuefei Yang and I'm not familiar with Chinese classical music, but your write-up has me intrigued. I'll look into her music soon.

Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50: Another update of sorts.
« Reply #16 on: May 02, 2013, 10:47:39 AM »
Up until now, a lot of the albums here have been not particularly "out-there", with the glaring exception of the first post. Well, This is where that will start becoming a little less true.

38.   Miles Davis – Bitches Brew (1969)



Bitches Brew is a rather special album. It’s Miles Davis being hugely experimental with loops, overdubs and more rock-influenced rhythms. This is by far not the most melodic of albums on this list, rather, it is focussed very tightly on endless rhythms and textures. I remember one time, sitting at my desk, I heard my boss humming this one riff I recognised but couldn’t place.

On further enquiry, he told me it was Bitches Brew, and then I remembered. This isn’t an album I listen to a lot, but do I really need to listen to it a lot for it to be one I hold very highly in regard? I would argue that it doesn’t. I do have to be in the right mood for this album, but when I hear it, it is something I enjoy hugely, as it is a very interesting and unique album. There is nothing else I have quite like this, and I think that’s an important thing, really.

I do have the complete sessions, which I need to get round to loading to my computer and hearing the second half, so my assessment of this album is only based on the two discs which were the original release, but if anything, I think the second half is likely to be something which only improves the full thing. For one thing, the later sessions (recorded after the release, I seem to remember) include a sitar player.

37.   Van Der Graaf Generator – Pawn Hearts (1971)




Van Der Graaf Generator are an unusual bunch of musicians, and one which always produce interesting results, which is something I say as a compliment, although I understand it could be interpreted otherwise, especially with regards to their style. It’s not your average melodic, song based music. Well, it’s not necessarily melodic.

One thing I greatly admire about the music of VdGG is that it does not adhere to any particular style, and holds no guarantee that the next minute won’t be the most horrific racket I’ve heard in a long time, even if the current minute seems to consist of a rather nice piano ballad. I know that’s something that my parents consider to be “awful”, but I really like the surprise, and to be honest, it’d be a little dull if I knew a song was going to sound nice the whole way through.

It’s a little difficult to describe the music on this album, and certainly even more challenging to describe it in a way that would make you want to listen to it, as it’s far from the most accessible thing, but then, I do like a bit of noise just thrown in sometimes. It can make things really quite different and I like that uncertainty. It’s art.

36.   Ahn Trio – Lullaby For My Favourite Insomniac (2008)



Here’s something a little different again. Ahn Trio are a classical trio consisting of three sisters who are all insanely gifted musicians. What interests me in this album is the combination of pieces chosen, as it includes jazz standards and even a Bowie song. Not all the pieces on this album are vocal, although some do have vocals.

This trio has been around for quite some time, and it shows, as the musicians really gel well on this recording. Everything complements every other thing, and so, even though the musicianship is evidently very competent, that doesn’t actually matter. It helps, sure, but it’s not as if the whole focus is on superior instrumental capability.

This album is one I very much like to listen to when having dinner. It’s not that it’s background music, because it really isn’t, it just has a very pleasant feel to it, which makes eating with it playing very easy. If anything, it makes the enjoyment of food a little too easy…
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Offline Big Hath

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #17 on: May 02, 2013, 11:21:31 AM »
ah yes, the Brew!

I love the atmosphere and dynamics on that album.  Lots of tension/release.  Great cast of musicians as well.
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Offline Lolzeez

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #18 on: May 02, 2013, 01:32:09 PM »
Pawn Hearts is amazing. I recently got it on vinyl. It will be on my top 50 v2.

Offline ColdFireYYZ

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #19 on: May 02, 2013, 05:39:15 PM »
Pawn Hearts is one of my absolute favorites of all time. It's the definition of a masterpiece for me.

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #20 on: May 04, 2013, 09:06:49 PM »
You seem to have an Asian woman fetish.
     

Offline LieLowTheWantedMan

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #21 on: May 04, 2013, 10:09:53 PM »
Pawn Hearts truly is one of the best albums ever. Probably my favourite classic prog album now.

Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #22 on: May 05, 2013, 01:49:12 AM »
Sorry it's been a while since the last post. Hopefully this one brings a few surprises for you.

35.   Portishead – Dummy (1994)



Seeing as this is a list of my favourite albums, it was never really as if there was going to be a lot of happy music on here, and I can tell you for sure, number thirty-five, Portishead’s Dummy is no exception to this. It’s got this wonderful, semi-abstract, slightly electronic air of absolute and entirely crushing depression to it. Portishead are a band local to Bristol, and so I can see entirely where this style arose. Bristol is a rainy place (well, average rainfall for the globe, but that’s still pretty wet for British standards) with a lot of hills and Georgian and neo-gothic architecture, and this album is perfect music for it. It’s a place I love hugely, but it’s not really sun and waves, especially not this time of year.

The music consists of electronic grooves, with Beth Gibbons’s plaintive voice over the top, and somewhere in between, a murky sort of electric piano to fill out the middle. Granted, there’s a little more to it than that, but those seem to be the main elements, and they work together to make this wonderfully doom-laden, slightly jazzy result which is truly glorious.

This is another of those albums I should probably give a little more play time to than I currently do, but it’s one I find to be intensely special, and unlike a lot of the other music I listen to.

34.   KT Tunstall – Tiger Suit (2010)




Here’s another album with a slightly electronic vein to it. Unlike Dummy, this one is considerably more up-tempo, rather than the very doom-inspiring sound found on the aforementioned album. This album does still contain the rock and folk present on the earlier Tunstall albums, but in the same way, it’s an entirely different beast.

For one thing, this album grooves more. Whereas the other albums had a more straight-ahead feel to them, this one actually makes me want to dance a little bit. As music goes, this album is really quite fun. I’m not really a fan of pop-ish styles, but this is good, honest pop. It’s still got all the hooks one would associate with pop, but it’s doing something interesting and unusual with them.

This album is more than just a collection of songs, too. It’s one definite, cohesive entity in itself, structured in a way that means that every song is just what contrast was needed from the previous song, and KT Tunstall does surprisingly good album closers, too, this providing no counter-example to that.

33.   Camel – Moonmadness (1976)



Here’s another of those albums I got into after my stepfather played me it years ago and it’s just kind of stuck. Moonmadness starts a little unexpectedly with a short, loud, little synthesizer-laden instrumental track. It’s certainly one of the most unusual things that Camel could have opened an album with, considering their style, but it works.

Afterwards, it drifts back more towards their more familiar style. It’s laid laidback (for the most part), and has some wonderful flute parts, and the way riffs slide in effortlessly and I know this sounds terribly cliché, but where they come in really takes the music to another level, such as on A Song Within A Song. One thing I love about Camel is that no matter what transitions occur in the music, the skill with which it is arranged leaves no part feeling incongruous. It all makes sense in how it comes and goes, and hell, it’s always strange when I realise I’m already on Lunar Sea. It just slides past so fast.

Again, this is an album where there is huge display of technical competence, although it is never really the focus of the music itself. I particularly love the manic feel of Lunar Sea, which half way through, just slides into this really spacey section with swirling synthesizers, before returning to that propulsive rhythm which characterises it. This album has some really wonderful forays into more jazzy territory than their earlier stuff, whilst still retaining that definitively Camel sound.


This is as exciting as superluminal neutrinos. The sexy thing is that this actually exists :D

Offline Scorpion

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #23 on: May 05, 2013, 03:53:47 AM »
Portishead is amazing, though I prefer Third over Dummy. Moonmadness is great as well, though I'm not always in the mood for the Canterbury-esque stuff, though they hit quite the spot when I am. Good update Ivan. :metal
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Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #24 on: May 05, 2013, 04:03:20 AM »
Thanks. I need to get hold of more Portishead, as Dummy is the only one of theirs I've heard. (They're also a local band. Glad you liked the update).
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Offline ?

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #25 on: May 05, 2013, 04:06:37 AM »
Dummy :tup I haven't heard Moonmadness in a long time, I guess I should give it a listen again.

Offline Lolzeez

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #26 on: May 05, 2013, 11:43:40 AM »
I really like Moonmadness but I still prefer the self titled and Mirage.

Offline Elite

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #27 on: May 06, 2013, 04:14:06 AM »
I haven't heard about half the albums you posted so far, wow :P
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50: Updated Again
« Reply #28 on: May 06, 2013, 11:11:59 AM »
Ok, sorry I have been a little lax of late, but here's the next update of jazz, prog and... uh... other. This might be one of the ones which contains at least one unexpected thing. I assure you there will be a few more (or at least I hope that will be so). But yeah, here are three more things.

32.   King Crimson – In The Court Of The Crimson King (1969)



This album is a rather special one for me, as it was the first one I bought by a band that no-one else had already played me a lot of or given me albums beforehand. I read that it had inspired Genesis on their Trespass album, so I decided I’d find this album, which was meant to be really good. I went to a music shop (HMV in Bath, I believe), and found it in a list of “50 albums to hear before you die” they had (with all those fifty albums, I think it was set around the same place as I have it here), and I bought it. I’d also heard the title track and I Talk To The Wind on Steve Hackett’s The Tokyo Tapes, and I’d really enjoyed those songs, so I thought it was worth a listen.

So, I got home and put the album on, and it was a somewhat enlightening experience, I must say. I’d never heard anything quite like 21st Century Schizoid man before. It started and seemed really quite simple, that was until the middle section kicks in and everyone shines on it. After that kicked in the serenity that I knew as I Talk To The Wind, only with Greg lake doing a really ethereal voice, in contrast to the quite strong voice John Wetton has on the recording I had heard.

The level of mellotron orchestration that followed was something I’d not come across before, and it made Epitaph and the title track truly grand and haunting, yet separated by this wonderfully quiet little ballad with a long improvisation on the end. The improvisation which ends Moonchild is understandably disliked by many, but I think it’s really quite nice, and adds a little bit of mystery before In The Court Of The Crimson King kicks in with full grandeur. I became massively obsessed with this album when I got it, and my father absolutely hated it, so evidently I must have done something right.

31.   Weather Report – Black Market (1976)




A little more jazz for you now, and it comes in the form of some Weather Report. I really love this album, it’s got a (multiple) fantastic rhythm section(s) and the duo of Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul just makes for some really powerful melodic and harmonic components on top of that. It’s a shame that the Weather Report rhythm section was so much of a revolving door, and it does show in the personnel on this album, as there are three different line-ups over the course of the album, although, that does include the drummers Narada Michael Walden and Chester Thompson of The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Frank Zappa’s band respectively, so it’s not as if any of the line-ups are bad at all.

I remember trying to jam along (poorly) to this album many years ago. I thought I was doing alright until Barbary Coast kicks in with Jaco Pastorius playing bass. That was the point at which I just put the bass down. The whole album just has such a wonderfully funky groove to it, especially on the opening track, and it’s entirely instrumental as well, which something I really like.

I remember I got it after I had decided it was time that I got into jazz and jazz fusion, and I can’t quite remember the reason I’d got it. I think it was most likely because the personnel included Chester Thompson, who I had heard on live recordings by Genesis and Steve Hackett, and I think it’s mentioned somewhere on the first Genesis Revisited album, or possibly The Tokyo Tapes. Either way, I saw this album in the shop and remembered the name, and I do not regret it.

30.   Incubus – S.C.I.E.N.C.E(1997)



It took me a while to really get into this album. As with a lot of the music on this list, it is very groove-laden, but it’s also really quite abrasive and I’m far from the biggest fan of rap and hip-hop (I know this album is metal, but it’s heavily influenced by rap and hip-hop). Once I got past the nu-metal nature of the album, I actually started to enjoy it. It’s rhythmically brilliant, and has a fair number of more mellow songs, as well as the instrumental “Magic Medicine” which largely consists of samples over a consistent backing rhythm. There is something quite amusing about Magic Medicine, and it also forms a nice little break from the rest of the album’s style.

I have to admit I got into this band from the first movement of The Odyssey, which appeared on one part of Halo 2, which you may remember. That level was one of the ones I used to play a lot just for the music, and at the time I was playing that game, I think if the style of Follow (1st Movement Of The Odyssey) had been anything like this album, I’d have not given it a second listen, and probably just turned the sound on the television off at that point.

That said, I don’t think I’ll ever own a lot of albums in the style of this one, and I certainly don’t listen to it very often, but as with a lot of albums on this list, I like to put it on from time to time. Like those albums already mentioned, when I put this album on, I really enjoy it.
This is as exciting as superluminal neutrinos. The sexy thing is that this actually exists :D

Offline Scorpion

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #29 on: May 06, 2013, 11:32:39 AM »
Another great update! I like Incubus when I'm in the mood (though I do prefer Make Yourself and Morning View), and ITHYCOCK is amazing as well. I don't often listen to jazz, though when I do, Weather Report are pretty good, though I'm not familiar with that particular album. Keep up the good updates! :tup
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Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #30 on: May 06, 2013, 11:36:40 AM »
Thanks, glad you like. There's some really good shit on SCIENCE. It's pretty good for just cranking up and alienating the neighbours to.
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Offline ColdFireYYZ

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #31 on: May 06, 2013, 06:30:38 PM »
I didn't have a chance to reply to the last update, but I love Moonmadness. I think I like Mirage a little bit more, but both are masterpieces.

I don't rate ITCOTCK as high as other prog fans, but it's still an excellent album. Epitaph is one of my favorites, and the Mellotron is phenomenal.

Black Market is also fantastic. Great pick! :tup

Offline Ruba

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #32 on: May 07, 2013, 12:44:32 AM »
ITT: COCK (courtesy of black_floyd) is awesome.

Offline Sketchy

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #33 on: May 07, 2013, 11:28:02 AM »
Hehe, glad you liked that one. Mirage is a pretty awesome album, and I love the solo at the end of Lady Fantasy (I tried to learn it once, but gave up after about three notes), and yeah, the I love the sound of mellotron to the point that a friend of mine and I have a running joke that I'll end up with a mellotron in a wedding dress.

Anyway, now for the next lot of albums. From here on, I planned when I drew up this list to do two albums a shot for a while (I can't remember why, but the numbers work out, so I'll stick to the plan, and it'll allow me to write up the last four, which I originally didn't have on the list when I drew it up last august or whenever).

29.   The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night (2010)



I remember when I first heard this. I had just come back from lectures one afternoon to find one of my housemates listening to this in the kitchen. I think he had only just started the album, and I strolled in, dumped my bag and coat on the floor and slumped into the sofa (it was nice having a sofa in the kitchen). I obviously looked really tired, as he started to move to pack up the computer, to make it easier to chat, but I insisted that he played the album, as it was really good and I was really enjoying it (despite looking very dead).

It must have been a really good first listen, as I remember when it ended I really wanted it to continue, just so I could have more of this band. Naturally, we chatted for a bit longer afterwards, before both returning to our studies, by which I mean he continued with his essay, and I went straight to my computer to order a copy.

The whole album is remarkably atmospheric, but with strong rhythmic undercurrents pushing it along at the same time. When the album finally arrived, it struck me just how beautiful the cover art actually is. It’s always been one of the things I love about this album, how it’s not just the music which is wonderful, but so is how the graphics have been done too. I love the cover so much, I’ve even bought a second copy on vinyl.

28.   Paul Simon - Graceland (1986)



The first time I heard this, I didn’t like it at all. I don’t know why, it just bored the arse off of me. It’s one of my father’s favourite albums, and he loves to blast it from time to time, especially in the summer, but that first time I heard it, I just really didn’t like it. A few weeks later, he was playing it again, and for some reason it just clicked this time. So, naturally, I went and bought myself a copy shortly afterwards.

This album is very much a bass-driven album, and that incredible bass work is pretty much what makes the album what it is. It gives the album this incredible energy to it, which never fails to make me smile when I hear it now. There are some wonderful contributions from all musicians on this, from Adrian Belew’s guitar synthesizer work to that wonderful accordion on The Boy In The Bubble.

I don’t really know what else to say about this record. The use of African styles of music makes it something quite different, and really quite interesting to listen to. It has had me dancing around the room before. It’s just that sort of album.

This is as exciting as superluminal neutrinos. The sexy thing is that this actually exists :D

Offline Shadow Ninja 2.0

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Re: A Rather Sketchy Top 50
« Reply #34 on: May 07, 2013, 11:29:57 AM »
You're right about the cover art for The Besnard Lakes. I've never heard of them, and I already want the album just based on the cover.