Andi Chorley
Reader. Gardener. Jazz, psychedelic music and more lover. Hiker. Photographer. Outdoor and indoor swimmer.
Patchakuti chilling on a log in the spring sun for caturday
Path through woodland in Hodge Clough under Moorside, Oldham.
Descending into the little valley formed by Besom Hill Brook before ascending again up to the hill that gives the brook its name. Near Clough, Oldham, Greater Manchester.
Paved path by the side of Besom Hill above Moorside, Oldham, Greater Manchester
A path through a meadow on the banks of Hodge Clough between Derker and Moorside,, Oldham. Oldham Edge is visible on the horizon, though somewhat obscured by the mizzle falling.
A path I have not taken yet near Clough, Oldham in the Beal Valley.
Crossing the River Medlock in its infancy just before it travels through the Strinesdale chain of reservoirs above Moorside, Oldham, Greater Manchester.
The Radio City tower and a seagull in Liverpool.
A tree in the woods above Hodge Clough, Moorside, Oldham. I saw a wild stag roe deer near here.
The Blue Coat Arts Centre in central Liverpool
A couple of pine trees growing on the slopes of Hodge Clough, Moorside, Oldham on an overcast day.
Golden Vessyl of Sound is the fourth studio album by Yume Bitsu, released on May 7, 2002, through K Records.
Review by Charles Spano
...A sprawling, grandiose mélange of space rock, Golden Vessyl finds the Portland, OR, band using guitars, horns, synthesizers, drums, and loops to forge an epic that crosses My Bloody Valentine and Godspeed You Black Emperor! From the spare, non-Western "Song Two" to the gurgling fractals of "Song Four," Golden Vessyl is hardly mellow, ambient music. It is a difficult album that demands the listener's attention and, though it could benefit form the intricate structure of a band like Boards of Canada, Golden Vessyl is quite rewarding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TSkwu5Dduo&list=PL67GN9hyN_jwrTxV0eK72znYz0LSbLZq4&index=1
Three mighty trees in the centre of Liverpool
Fielding by Hala Strana, released on Jewelled Antler in 2003.
Hala Strana (translated from the Old Bulgarian which mean "salted shore") is the name of a recording project of American musician Steven R. Smith. Smith began recording under the name in 2002 as an outlet which allowed him to explore the traditional music of Eastern Europe more fully than possible with his solo work. Although numerous musicians have contributed to the project, including Glenn Donaldson, Loren Chasse, and Darren Ankenman, most Hala Strana recordings are solo productions. His recordings have included such diverse instruments as hurdy-gurdy, bouzouki, harmonium, spike fiddles, bulbul tarang, the optigan keyboard, xaphoon, and field recordings. - Wikipedia
https://worstward.bandcamp.com/album/fielding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0r_76GsP8k&list=OLAK5uy_mYbTMG64QBZO_n4yUWmqOsTfktS_de1gs&index=1
#HalaStrana #StevenRSmith #EasternEuropeanMusic #Ambient #FolkMusic #Music
Devils, Rats and Piggies: A Special Message from Godzilla by the Mekons, released in 1980 on Red Rhino.
Review by Chris Nickson
Even though they began in the Leeds punk scene, the Mekons never sat comfortably in the straitjacket of punk, and by 1980 they'd largely broken out of it,..The Mekons were lyrically enigmatic, with an overall sound that veered toward the avant-garde (and echoing early Cure on the deliberately mundane "Chopper Squad"), while becoming more aware of the past (a bizarre rendering of "The Trimdon Grange Explosion"). It's interesting, too, that this was recorded at one of England's leading folk studios. In many ways it helps set the scene for the rest of the Mekons' career -- challenging, sometimes awkward, sometimes funny (like "John Barry"), occasionally amateurish, but always interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddmMVUOfnTM&list=PLFvqccCja67tdQ6Uc4Ur1BLGsEeElsPx7&index=1
Lemonjelly.ky is the debut album by the British duo Lemon Jelly, released on 23 October 2000. It compiles all nine tracks originally released on the duo's first three limited edition EPs: The Bath, The Yellow and The Midnight,.. - Wikipedia
Review by Dean Carlson
Fred Deakin and Nick Franglen compiled their first three EPs of fizzy chill-out for those late-night lava lamp staring sessions. It's downtempo for the acid generation, an eschewing of popular prêt-à-porter after-hour aesthetics. You wouldn't catch many an icily cool dance group writing songs of slow-motion fascist mamba marches ("Homage to Patagonia"), universal U.K. garage meditations ("Page One"), or Edward Scissorhands sipping cocktails at Eighteenth Street Lounge Music ("His Majesty King Raam"). Perhaps a good thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLZpceql7K4&list=OLAK5uy_kx7m1xpaCgZXd0nZOSXGR61fK0b34-rtM
#LemonJelly #ChillOut #FredDeakin #NickFranglen #TripHop #Downtempo #Music
Ask Me Tomorrow is the debut album by Mojave 3, released by 4AD on 16 October 1995 in the UK and on 16 January 1996 in the US. The album was released roughly eight months after the release of Pygmalion, the third studio album by Mojave 3 founders Neil Halstead, Rachel Goswell, and Ian McCutcheon's previous band Slowdive.
The Irish Times noted that "there's loads of slide guitar, slow piano and brushed drums and the whole thing sounds as if Stephen Ryan and Tindersticks have got together for a lo fi jam." - Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLDtuaefXsg&list=PL8Xbf2xl0OGBTW0S1xCbIzocjRIazud6F&index=1
#Mojave3 #SlowDive #AltCoiuntry #DreamPop #SadCore #4AD #Music
Dimension Intrusion is the debut studio album by Canadian electronic music producer Richie Hawtin, credited under the alias F.U.S.E. It was released in June 1993 by Plus 8 and Warp, serving as the fifth album in Warp's Artificial Intelligence series.
According to music writer Margy Holland, Dimension Intrusion is "widely considered one of the greatest electronic albums ever".
Fact described Dimension Intrusion as "a record which really demonstrates Hawtin's range as a producer" and "one of his most melodic, immediate works".[6] AllMusic stated that the album alternates between "minimalist stompers [and] more melodic, contemplative material," which made Hawtin "a perfect match for the other producers in Warp's Artificial Intelligence series." - Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSASFq48U2s&list=PLa7DwXF9n16E9iuN2tPCUACeP8rK0VvTo&index=1
#RichieHawtin #Techno #WarpRecords #ArtificialIntelligence #Music #ElectronicMusic #Fuse
A tree growing on the slopes below Besom Hill, Oldham surrounded by bluebells.
Punch the Clock is the eighth studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, and his seventh with the Attractions—keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas and drummer Pete Thomas (no relation). It was released on 5 August 1983 through F-Beat Records in the United Kingdom and Columbia Records in the United States. Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, the album was Costello's attempt at making a commercial record following years of dwindling commercial success. It was recorded at London's AIR Studios in early 1983 and features contributions from the TKO Horns and Afrodiziak. - Wikipedia
Weaker than previous LPs by EC and the Attractions, but it has Shipbuilding, and I first heard Chet Baker's divine trumpet playing on this LP when a callow teen living in Thatcher's Britain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_aLSsjZMr8&list=OLAK5uy_mRQT5FBfZ18m9x2aY4R1dxa6Vr23KDB30&index=6
#ElvisCostello #TheAttractions #ChetBaker #RobertWyatt #Shipbuilding #Music
Three Imaginary Boys is the debut studio album by the English rock band the Cure, released on 8 May 1979 by Fiction Records..
Review by Chris True
Maybe it was youthful exuberance or perhaps it was the fact that the band itself was not pulling all the strings, Three Imaginary Boys is not only a very strong debut, but a near oddity (it's an admittedly "catchy" record) in the Cure catalog. More poppy and representative of the times than any other album during their long career, Three Imaginary Boys is a semi-detached bit of late-'70s English pop-punk. Angular and lyrically abstract, it's strong points are in its utter simplicity. There are no dirges here, no long suites, just short bursts of energy and a rather strange cover of Hendrix's "Foxy Lady." For some, this is the last good Cure record, many fans of this album being in no way prepared for the sparse emptiness and gloom that would be the cornerstone of future releases.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHg1rAhB_SE&list=OLAK5uy_kb8mwZCZdkS1E0y9rpp8gpwnV6Md6-m90
Different Class (released in Japan as Common People) is the fifth studio album by English rock band Pulp, released on 30 October 1995 by Island Records.
The inspiration for the title came to frontman Jarvis Cocker in Smashing, a club night that ran during the early 1990s in Eve's Club on Regent Street in London. Cocker had a friend who used the phrase "different class" to describe something that was "in a class of its own". Cocker liked the double meaning, with its allusions to the British social class system, which was a theme of some of the songs on the album.[6] A message on the back of the record also references this idea:
"We don't want no trouble, we just want the right to be different. That's all." - Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0DRch3YLh0&list=OLAK5uy_kpuC1lbty7PpQTYoJJg4wLInprUiB07RM
Days in the Wake is the second studio album by Will Oldham. It was released under the moniker Palace Brothers on Drag City in 1994. Original copies of the album were eponymous.
Mark Deming of AllMusic said, "Days in the Wake is the simplest work in the Palace canon, and among the very best." - Wikipedia
https://palace-music.bandcamp.com/album/days-in-the-wake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S6XJNQicMA&list=OLAK5uy_kArmR21Oy0DEsaN3QoPe1R2m-UI5q-aAg
#PalaceBrothers #WillOldham #BonniePrinceBilly #Music #DragCity #FreakFolk
Programmed to Love is the debut studio album by English electronic music duo Bent, released in 2000. The album contains various styles of electronic music and a wide array of samples.
Review by Joe Silva
Much respected on their native English soil, while virtually unknown outside of dance circles elsewhere, Bent traffics in the sort of mid-tempo beats and well-sculpted, chilled atmospheres attributed to many French techno-heads...Kudos are to be given for the vocoder-laden "Cylons in Love" and the wonderfully reconfigured Ernesto Lecuona piece, "Always." Though not every track may manage the allure of the aforementioned, the skill and imagination employed (as on the sample-heavy "Exercise 1," for example) make this a more-than-enjoyable release throughout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yCdOChz-fg&list=OLAK5uy_mL79jtFjJHzLmZjYA7aRO_llY0DeMJBQE
#Bent #MinistryOfSound #Techno #TripHop #Samples #ElectronicMusic #Music
Ended Thursday and welcomed Friday with Water by David Cunningham, released on Made To Measure in 1992.
Review by Dean McFarlane
A deeply affecting collection of atmospheric soundtracks spanning ten years, 1981-1991, this album collects experimental works performed by David Cunningham with a cast of collaborators, including guitarist Robert Fripp and saxophonist Peter Gordon. Many of these short works were made for the purpose of scoring television documentaries and art installations, each reflecting a minimalist approach to atmospheric sound design that often recalls the work of Brian Eno. David Cunningham often approaches his work in a constant state of remixing; for example, most of the tracks here are reworkings and loops made from elements of his other albums, such as the gorgeous Fourth Wall...
Metaphorical Music (stylised in lower case) is the debut studio album by Japanese musician Nujabes. Released in 2003, it offers a combination of hip hop and instrumental jazz, and features artists like Shing02, Substantial, Five Deez and Cise Starr (of CYNE). Despite the fact that the album has contributing vocals from several artists, it is roughly classified as an instrumental hip hop album.
Uyama Hiroto contributed to several notable tracks on the album, including "Letter from Yokosuka" and "Next View", and would appear on subsequent albums Modal Soul and Spiritual State. Metaphorical Music received universal acclaim from Nujabes' fans and critics alike - Wikipedia
...And Don't the Kids Just Love It is the debut album by English post-punk band Television Personalities, released on 20 February 1981 by Rough Trade Records.
Review by Stewart Mason
The first full album by Television Personalities, recorded after a four-year series of often brilliant D.I.Y. singles recorded under a variety of names, including the O-Level and the Teenage Filmstars, is probably the purest expression of Daniel Treacy's sweet-and-sour worldview. The songs, performed by Treacy, Ed Ball, and Mark Sheppard, predict both the C-86 aesthetic of simple songs played with a minimum of elaboration but a maximum of enthusiasm and earnestness and the later lo-fi aesthetic...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hoVTN4iKVs
#TelevisionPersonalities #DanTreacy #EdBall #PostPunk #Psychedelia #Music #RoughTrade #Mod
Ended Monday and welcomed Tuesday after a swim with Jardin Au Fou, the second solo album by German keyboardist Hans-Joachim Roedelius, best known for his work with Cluster. The title is French for "Madman's Garden".
Mike Ezzo, who reviewed the album for Groove Unlimited, writes, in part:
"...'Jardin au Fou' was where he cemented that particularly light-hearted and wistful Roedelius sound. Not a garden of madness, rather a garden of whimsy and odd delight, it is simple melodious keyboard music whose character is imbued with unexpected chord progressions that don't resolve in traditional ways, a naive rhythmic sense, and melodic lines that go where you least expect. One gets the feeling that Roedelius had envisioned the scenery of a park on a Sunday afternoon in Paris, or some kind of music from a traveling circus show, when the inspiration for this recording struck him." - Wikipedia
Chic is the debut album by Chic, released on Atlantic Records in 1977.
Review by Alex Henderson
When Chic's self-titled debut album came out in 1978, many rock critics gave it very negative reviews and failed to see just how rhythmically and harmonically exciting Chic's blend of funk, soul, and Euro-disco was. But one critic who often gave Chic favorable coverage was Don Waller, who hit the nail on the head when he exalted the band as "an uptown version of Booker T & the MG's." It was a most insightful analogy -- Chic's music was a lot sleeker than Booker T & the MG's raw, instrumental Memphis soul, but like Booker T., the Niles Rodgers/Bernard Edwards team turned out some of the most infectious and influential R&B party grooves of their era..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqGZqHoVKXA&list=PL9B6imbpzJfEYBXIu_UPNgp3kN8ofOgL3&index=1
Rainbow Takeaway is the eighth studio album by Kevin Ayers. The core band is essentially the same as in his previous album, Yes We Have No Mañanas (So Get Your Mañanas Today). - Wikipedia
Easy Livin' wrote for Prog Archives:
On the plus side Kevin puts the emphasis firmly on melody, and while this can result in him sound like a rich voiced crooner, it does mean that the album is pleasantly rewarding. The opening "Blaming it all on love" is a case in point, Ayers sounding somewhere between Peter Skellern and Sammy Davis Jnr(!). Likewise, the piano based "Waltz for you" is smoooooth, with a slightly Pink Floyd ("San Tropez", "Fat old sun") feel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHLbPUUiblQ&list=PL9p8VXn70jyY10tidod_mPNK8MShvhpVP&index=1
#KevinAyers #OllieHalsall #Prog #SoftMachine #CanterburyScene #Music
Leimert Park: Roots & Branches Of Los Angeles Jazz by the Gathering, self-released in 2008.
The album is the result of a historic recording session and summit brought together on October 10th of 2005 by Jesse Sharps, one of the early bandleaders of Horace Tapscott's Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. Several well established local musicians such as Ndugu Chancler, Taumbu Ector, Kamau Daáood, Richard Grant, Azar Lawrence, Phil Ranelin, Roberto Miranda, and Michael Session joined members of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and young up and coming players on the scene like Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Brandon Coleman, Joey Dosik, Randal Fisher, Nick Rosen, and Kamasi Washington. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson brought in Peter Jacobson, Myka Miller, and Sara Schoenbeck to help round out the woodwinds and strings.
https://thegatheringrootsoflajazz.bandcamp.com/album/leimert-park
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZLmC14ClKw&list=RDdZLmC14ClKw&start_radio=1
#TheGathering #SpiritualJazz #Jazz #LosAngeles #JesseSharps #KamasiWashington #Music #FreeJAzz
The Keyboard King by Jackie Mittoo, released in 1976 on Third World.
Donat Roy Mittoo (3 March 1948 – 16 December 1990), better known as Jackie Mittoo,[1] was a Jamaican-Canadian keyboardist, songwriter and musical director. He was a member of the Skatalites and musical director of the Studio One record label.
Upon hearing of Mittoo's death, Coxsone Dodd commented "He was an ambassador of our music worldwide... there can be no doubt. Read the legacy this young man has left behind. May his name be remembered and his music live on". - Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qiIl9bkQ5c&list=PLRHHOo6uzXFWgt8W44WnCVoWC7oSXrrvn&index=1
#JackieMittoo #Reggae #Skatalites #StudioOne #Music #RobertCrumb
Autogeddon is the eleventh solo album by Julian Cope, released in 1994 on The Echo Label. According to the album's sleeve notes, written by Cope, it was "inspired by Heathcote Williams' epic poem of the same name and a little incident concerning my pregnant wife (and myself) and £375,000 of yellow Ferrari in St. Martin's Lane, London, England".
The album is largely a diatribe against car culture. Heathcote Williams' poem characterises the motor car's global death toll as "A humdrum holocaust, the third world war nobody bothered to declare". Cope's railing against car culture was symptomatic of his rejection of numerous aspects of Western consumerism. - Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B84B4-KLYfQ&list=OLAK5uy_moUWxHL6EnDnw52Lk_-BqonFJcoIToitc
Mexican R'n'B is the debut album by English rock band The Stairs. It was released in 1992 on Go! Discs in the UK
Review by Tim Sendra
When they first started playing in 1990, the Stairs were out of step with the times. There weren't too many bands playing reverent versions of rugged garage rock, rollicking psych-pop, and jangling folk-rock in the U.K., or anywhere. Bassist/vocalist Edgar Jones, guitarist Ged Lynn, and drummer Paul Maguire took old Pebbles, Nuggets, and Rubbles compilations, stole all the best parts, and rebuilt them into new-ish tunes for the modern scene. They made some early fans and ended up recording a batch of EPs, then released their retro masterpiece, Mexican R 'n' B, in 1992...is at its core a total nostalgia trip, but the band's energy and knack for writing hooky songs make it a trip worth taking, especially with Jones calling out the sights along the way.
Miami Sound (Rare Funk & Soul From Miami, Florida 1967-1974), released on Soul Jazz in 2003.
A much-needed look at the funky Miami scene of the late 60s and early 70s -- the new powerhouse of southern soul, after the slowdown in the scenes in Memphis and Muscle Shoals! The Miami sound was harder, tighter, rawer, and faster than that of other southern outlets -- based around a really strong ability to pick up a little riff, cook it up nicely, and create the perfect backdrop for sock-soul vocals. By the mid 70s, Miami was topping the charts with disco tunes that sprung out of this energy -- but the tracks on this set are all heavy-hitters from the pre-disco years -- kickass funky tunes that burn like a box full of rare funky 45s! - Dusty Groove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHIKOtn4aTA&list=PLOzdG_QQMqT91eao0CBz1u0ixM35XfDqo&index=10
A New Chapter of Dub is an album by English reggae band Aswad, released by Island Records in April 1982. The record is a dub version of Aswad's previous album New Chapter (1981), and was produced by the group with Michael "Reuben" Campbell. Having felt New Chapter under-performed commercially because it was too intricate for mainstream reggae audiences (the market Aswad wanted to break first), the group conceived the dub remix album as a way of appealing to core reggae audiences. The record emphasises dub techniques like delay, echo and drop-out and was among the first British dub albums to use tape and digitally manipulated echo on a horn section. Although not a commercial success, A New Chapter of Dub received critical acclaim and has since been cited by some writers as one of the greatest dub albums of all time. - Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cC8ZZa-Grw&list=PLULco4uo9fiIdNjtmwJxkT6uAbVuH893u&index=1
Light Extracts is an album by Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset's Électronique Noire.
AllMusic critique Thom Jurek, in his review of Aarset's album Light Extracts states:
... Basses rattle in the underpinned rhythmic center as Aarset's guitar plies a textural schema trying to get to and undo the fixed center of the track.
He loose-hands his way around the fretboard, playing against the rhythm and on top of it until everything gives way to some new form of musically crystalline darkness.
Light Extracts is light years ahead of everybody in this game and a few notches above his first effort. This is the cat to watch.... - Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2-ERaCdKy8&list=OLAK5uy_lS3RXXU7rXO78O835crzSfEMkg4YBZDAg
#EivindAarset #ElectronicJazz #ElectricJazz #JazzRock #Jazz #JazzGuitar #NorwegianMusic #Music
Auspicious Winds is the third studio album by Yume Bitsu, released on November 14, 2000, by K Records.
Review by Stephen Cramer
...The band's atmospheric brand of indie rock is powerful, cerebral, and intricate. Similar to Tristeza, the band intertwines extended instrumentals with Adam Forkner's composed vocals. The disc begins with the bright-sounding "The Wedding Procession." A festival of sounds at the beginning of "Doctor Trips" creates a complex and haunting second track. The instrumental "Mothmen Meet the Council of Frogs" includes a steady organ and harrowing drumming, in addition to a solo by Johnson. Some of the longer tracks run out of steam, but, in general, their length seems to be a necessity. More than anything, Yume Bitsu creates a relaxed and thoughtful mood with their songs...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIid-p_7Qs0&list=RDmIid-p_7Qs0&start_radio=1
Enviro by Bronx Dogs, released on Marble Bar in 2001.
Paul Eve and Richard Sen with the kind of mix of techno, hip-hop, and big beat that was rocking dancefloors at the start of this century.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK5VzXcyj0E&list=RDPK5VzXcyj0E&start_radio=1
#BronxDogs #RcihardSen #PaulEve #Techno #BigBeat #DanceMusic #Music