Ever Shambling Onwards...

Well, I've just hit a fairly epic "rock virtuoso supergroup" CD, so I'll keep going for a bit longer... although there's some weird stuff coming up in the Bs, so I may not last much longer tonight.

( BBM - Around The Next Dream )
Verdict: KEEP

( Black Tape for a Blue Girl - With a Million Tear Stained Memories )
Verdict: I'm not MISERABLE enough to keep this one

( Bass Communion - Ghosts on Magnetic Tape )
Verdict: The dark, murmuring voices, they tell me to keep it. They don't say what will happen if I don't... but I fear it all the same.

( Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here )
Verdict: Keep

( Apocalyptica - Plays Metallica by Four Cellos )
Verdict: TO GO - get in touch if you'd like it.

( Arena - Contagion )
Verdict: Keep - if it's mine, that is. Otherwise give it back to izzy_stradlin and acquire my own copy.

We're into the Bs

( Black Mountain - In The Future )
Verdict: Keep - even if it's just for a second chance as it's turned out better than I remembered.

Having pushed through the great wall of Electric Violin, I'm now moving on to norwegian ambient/electronica/neo-classical. Seriously - that's what wikipedia says and it kind of fits - not in the sense of neo-classicial music, but in the sense of drawing on what would often be referred to as "classics" for their themes and inspiration.

I'm calling this Part III as part II Couldn't go on for ever. I'm done with work for the day now, but still sticking with the general album reviews rather than track by track.

( Amethystium - Odonata, Aphelion and Evermind )
Verdict: Keep

Meanwhile, I've found my sewing kit! I can repair my clothes again! Huzzah!

This is a "whilst doing other things" continuation of my great CD listen through.

I listen to music a lot whilst working, so here I'm taking a couple of minutes out after each CD to type up some thoughts and post them up. It's not as thorough as I would be if I was listening at a time other than when I was working... but if I did that then I probably wouldn't finish for years.

( All About Eve - Winter Words: Hits and Rarities )

( Ed Alleyne-Johnson - Purple Electric Violin Concerto )

( Ed Alleyne-Johnson - Ultraviolet )

I'm not doing very well at this "clearout" business. I've ordered another new CD (Ed Alleyne-Johnson's Symphony) and haven't trimmed anything out of the collection yet. I may have to downgrade that Age of Reason CD from an earlier post to the (currently empty) "free for all / charity shop" pile. Then again, the standard has been conspicuously high in those first few CDs. I suspect I'll hit a rich vain of embarrassing dross at some point.

I've decided that I'm going to do a grand listen-through of every CD I own, going through the bands in alphabetical order, and each band's albums/singles in chronological order.

This is likely to take me a while. Not least of which because the act of sorting them all into order is no mean feat. Some may not make it to a full listen, and some will end up out of order because I found them late. I have done this once before, and it took me a hell of a long time... I suspect this time will take just as long. I may not end up listening to every CD in full - although I may try to force myself every once in a while.

If I say I've skipped one, and you'd prefer I didn't... well, then you'll have to arrange to come round and make me listen to it.

But here we go - time to start.

( Abel Ganz - The Dangers of Strangers )

( Age of Reason - One Small Act of Defiance )
Verdict: TO GO (downgraded from "keep if room")

( Alabama 3 - Exile on Coldharbour Lane )

...and I think three CDs is enough for tonight, especially as the last one was quite a long one!

Next up:
Alabama 3 - La Peste
All About Eve - All About Eve
All About Eve - Scarlet and Other Stories

Yesterday was a bit of an odd day... a lot of ups and a single (annoyingly significant) down.

I'll start with the "down", just to get it out of the way - I've done something unpleasant to my back, it seems. For the second time in the past week or so, it's locked up on me completely. Shoulders and upper back are just completely seized up. Last night it locked up on me and I ended up lying in bed, too tired to do anything, but unable to sleep because I couldn't stop twitching and shivering. Not a good end to an otherwise fantastic long weekend.

Anyway, I'm going to the GP in a bit to get that looked at.

The upside of yesterday, however, involved a drive to Tring with izzy_stradlin. What an oscure place... It seemed relatively pleasant, but my main reason for going there wasn't to admire the quite picturesque town centre, but to go to the Pendley Court Theatre for a gig.

There's a band I've liked for a fair while called "The Wishing Tree". They're the side project of Marillion's guitarist, Steve Rothery. They're rather good - quite folky in an All About Eve kind of way. This gig was the album launch for their new album, and also warmup gig for a couple of other gigs they've got coming up.

The support was provided by Robin Boult (AKA The Itch) and Pete Trewavas (Bassist for both Marillion & The Wishing Tree, and a great many other bands as well), under the monicker of "Pete & Robin's Experimental Thing". It was basically the two of them with an assortment of accoustic and electric guitars and basses. Half the songs didn't have names yet or were half written, half improvised... one was essentially a 5+ minute jam because they wanted to mess around with their new loop pedals. In short, it was muddled, disorganised and a bit rushed because they were more than a little late getting going... and bloody fantastic. It really rammed home just how good a bassist Pete Trewavas really is, as well as making it very clear that he's not one of those bassists who plays bass because they can't handle six strings. He was swapping back and forth between bass, accoustic and electric guitar every other song, and doing a great job with both.

As for Robin Boult - well, he's only release one album, which is a lot more mellow and relaxed than a lot of what these guys were playing, but he's also well worth checking out if you get the chance. Apparently they do plan to actually record an album based on what they were performing last night and release it at some point, and I'll be buying it as soon as I get the chance.

When they were done with their short set, there was a 10-15 minute break in which they packed up. Of course, Pete then just set up a different selection of stuff in a different bit of the stage, as he's in the main act as well as the support.

The band were quite open about having only had a day and a half's rehearsal (it's a warmup gig, and the album's technically not even out yet!), and about the fact that the songs weren't really written with the idea of them being performed live... and as such the band had expanded to be a seven-piece, which still wasn't actually enough to accommodate everything on the album, but they were having a good stab at it. It was a friendly, intimate gig (audience of 120, may of whom were friends and family of the band) where the banter really was a two way discussion.

Bearing all of that in mind, it was a fantastic gig. All the performances were on top form, and the only real glitches coming when the various elecronic doohickery that was meant to be adding in the parts they didn't have enough musicians for went wrong. Their response to those glitches was to kill said electronics and carry on regardless - I don't think they suffered for it, to be honest.

A good friendly gig, fantastic band in a nice, secluded venue. Last time The Wishing Tree played, I missed it (it was in 2002, I believe) - and decided that wasn't going to happen again. This time I delayed purchasing my ticket by a few minutes after recieving the email announcing the gig, so I could ask izzy_stradlin if she wanted to come too. This meant I was purchase #4... next time I won't wait as long!

The time has come around for me to post up some answers... so here they are:

( Here are the lyrics, coupled with their songs )

For those not in the know... I've been off at Summer's End over the weekend. It's a small, annual progressive rock music festival, and this year it was in the Forest of Dean, about 5-10 minutes drive away from where I used to live. izzy_stradlin was taking photos of the first night's headline act, so needed to be there early, so I took a half day (somewhat contentious, but I got away with it).

( Opening night review follows... )

Neph gig last night was mighty. I could see almost nothing - occasional glimpses of Carl's head, and every once in a while I could see a guitarist... but it didn't matter. Atmosphere was fantastic, venue was packed, the music was good (they played a surprising amount of older material, even if they did give short shrift to Elizium). The traditional-for-neph-gigs audience human-pyramids made it to three levels, which was kind of cool to see.

Transport was less mighty, of course, resulting in my not getting in until 1.30am (or thereabouts - I forget exactly when). Also, my poor ailing back isn't thanking me. Still, these gigs are so rare that it was worth it.

Naturally, I'll be listening to a fair bunch of their music for the next day or two.