opal evenings

The real value of the iPod shuffle facility is that it throws up long forgotten music, forcibly reminds you what you've been missing, then makes you play old albums that haven't been played for way too long.

Two tracks recently, both from 1988, made me abandon my shuffling and delve deeper into the albums this music came from.

Firstly - "Balthus Bemused By Colour" from Harold Budd’s synth and reverb heavy White Arcades. It's a great piece of music, way too echoey, but that’s what you get if you hang around with Robin Guthrie for too long. The White Arcades is a lovely album, but is perhaps the only Budd record that sounds dated, or rather, of it’s time. All his other stuff is timeless.

But just when I was thinking - I must play the whole of The White Arcades again, I heard -

"Winter Music" by Roger Eno, from Between Tides. Interestingly this dates from the same time as the Budd track, but this one, as with all of Between Tides, really is timeless. The mix of strings and piano on this album is quite magical and although I adore Voices I think that Between Tides is perhaps the better album.

Roger Eno is Brian Eno's brother, younger by some eleven years. He worked with his brother on Apollo in 1982 and in 1985 Brian assisted in the recording of Voices, the ironically titled all instrumental debut album from Roger. The frosty synth embellishments contributed by Brian are excellent and give the album a real sense of a chilly winter’s night. But these also invite comparisons with the piano / synth albums Brian made with Harold Budd and at times Voices veers close to being Son Of Plateaux Of Mirror, a comparison which is quite understandable but is perhaps a little unfair to Roger. Whilst Budd's playing is pretty and sparse, much like the younger Eno's on Voices, in general Roger's piano work relies more on melody and is imbued with a peculiarly English flavour which sets it apart from Budd's minimalist beauty.

Roger worked without his brother on the 1988 follow up album Between Tides. Contributions and production from infinite guitarist Michael Brook, and the addition of gorgeously simple string arrangements mean that Between Tides is a large step away from the wintery ambience of the debut. Most of the pieces are wistfully melancholy, utterly beautiful, calming and reflective in a very English pastoral manner.  

In 1988 Roger Eno, Harold Budd, Michael Brook and electronic zither player Laraaji played a series of joint concerts under the title An Opal Evening. Opal was the record label set up by Brian Eno and his soon to be wife Anthea which had signed all four artists.

These concerts would typically allow for a solo set by each musician with joint ventures and improvs often joining the sets before all four would combine for a finale. The improvisational nature of much of the music extended to the casualness with which the quartet approached their stagecraft. Dr Martin and I saw the show at the Royal Festival Hall at which there was a surprising amount of laughter, not least when Michael Brook announced that Roger Eno would be onstage next, 'when we can find him'. Roger eventually arrived to huge applause which clearly baffled him.

One of the tracks played at the RFH went by the clearly ironic title of "Optimistic Prelude" at that point. A lovely, slightly wistful piece with a repeated piano motif overlaid with gently increasing strings, and a mournful oboe, this piece was wonderful in the hall, and this actual performance appears on Between Tides as "Winter Music".

A later Opal Evening, at a Festival in Lanzarote in December 1989 gave rise to a number of semi-official albums. It seems like the usual Opal suspects played at this Festival, which was televised, either just locally in the Canaries or across Spain, it’s not too clear. The artists, Budd, Brook, Roger E, and Laraaji (plus Peter Hammill, who was also on the bill) obviously gave their permission for the tv broadcast and possibly for the subsequent Spanish only home video of some of the performances, but it seems that was as far as it went.  

So when Sine Records issued half a dozen cds in the mid 1990s taken from these performances the artists weren’t terribly impressed. But there seems to be some sort of legal grey area here as the cds were apparently dubbed from the tv recording. Obviously these cds weren’t strictly bootlegs as I bought most of them in HMV in Oxford Street, but they obviously weren’t strictly authorized either. And that led to all sorts of made up titles on the discs. Check out Budd’s Aqua for a right old muddle with the track names. Roger’s Night Garden seems to feature all new pieces, so it’s unclear what the titles ought to be, and Laraaji’s music is pretty much untitle-able anyway! Michael Brook says he’s never been paid for his disc, so I guess the others haven’t either.

The sound quality isn’t bad on all of these but while most tracks have the audience / applause neatly faded out there are a few pieces that shake you out of your ambient induced reverie when some overloud clapping crashes in. But… despite all that, there’s some excellent music to be found on these. The Brook one is especially good I think.

Anyway, I have thoroughly enjoyed getting re-acquainted with Between Tides. Lovely music for a quiet evening unwinding with a glass of wine. Perfect.

dali's car - ingladaloneness

The ‘new’ Dali’s Car ep InGladAloneness features Mick Karn’s last recordings before cancer took him from us. 

These songs were created by Karn and Peter Murphy back in 2010 and I don’t really know why it’s taken nearly 18 months for these five songs to be released. But was it worth the wait? Absolutely. It might seem odd to wait nearly thirty years before before crafting a follow up to the 1984 Karn / Murphy album The Waking Hour, but then little these two musicians have done has ever really followed a logical path.

The way the 20 minute ep is structured is very interesting, as it appears to feature Karn less and less, as if he’s gradually slipping from view as the songs progress.

We start with "King Cloud" and "Sound Cloud" which both feature some of that rubbery basswork that so dominated the first Dali’s Car album. But instead of the sparse synthetic percussion and warbly synths from The Waking Hour, the new tracks use Karn’s bass in a much more conventional manner. Most of the instrumentation was added later, under the supervision of Steve Jansen and Jakko Jakszyk. Jansen’s superb playing is a vast improvement over the clunky drum machines of 1984, but part of the wonky charm of the debut album was perhaps the ramshackle method of its construction.

This is perhaps InGladAloneness’s only weakness – that it sounds a little too accomplished.

Jakko adds all manner of guitars and strings and creates a beautiful soundworld not too far removed from that on A Scarcity Of Miracles (the brilliant album he did with Fripp and Mel Collins last year).

Murphy’s vocals are delightfully off beat. Whilst he doesn’t sound quite as loopy as on The Waking Hour, there’s still more than enough Murph idiosyncrasy to keep me happy.

Anyway, whilst the first two tracks are relatively conventional, well, as conventional as could be expected, the last three are more intriguing. "Artemis Rise" takes the original 1984 track "Artemis" as its basis and adds layers of vocals and guitars and Jansen. By contrast "Subhanallah" is pretty much only Murphy and Turkish singer Shengul (she also features on the Murph’s 1999 track "Surrendered") singing an Arabic chant – the title translates as ‘Praise be to Allah’ and it’s absolutely lovely. Gorgeous understated strings too.

The final track starts with some of Karn’s muted bass clarinet, layered and multi-tracked. Then, after a minute or so, a gentle guitar picks out the refrain of "If You Go Away" and Murphy sings the first verse (based very closely on Scott Walker’s interpretation of this Brel song). He sings it brilliantly (and PM has been singing this one in recent concerts too, which must be great to hear.) It’s also extremely emotional. Slightly strange that we only get the first verse, but it somehow works very well, leaving the song sounding half finished, which is very appropriate considering that Karn was taken so ill that he was unable to complete the sessions.

It’s a wonderful little ep. Unlike Murphy’s recent songs, unlike Karn’s left field avant garde jazzy albums, so very Dali’s Car, but with a modern, more grown up sheen. The title is slightly annoying, especially in the way it’s all run together but still capitalized weirdly – that sort of thing always annoys me slightly - but musically it is terrific. I wish more of this music existed, but this 20 minute fragment is all we shall be getting. But it’s well worth it, a fitting testament to Karn's talent.

roxy music - stranded & country life

Today’s music is a couple of genuine 100% classics. Roxy Music’s Stranded and Country Life.

Both contain some really top notch songs (among the classics are “Mother Of Pearl”, “Song For Europe”, Street Life”, “Amazona” on Stranded and “All I Want Is You”, “Out of The Blue”, “A Really Good Time” and “Casanova” on CL) and both albums are brilliantly produced with even the weaker songs garnished with delightful little touches. “Triptych” is especially cleverly constructed with both startling choral vocals on the middle section and harpsichords on the opening and closing parts.

Both albums have striking covers (with perhaps CL having one of the most striking covers by anyone, ever), both feature the stunning violin work of Eddie Jobson, especially on “Out Of The Blue”, Manzanera plays a blinder on both (“Amazona” is a real tour de force) and Andy Mackay contributes some of his best ever saxophone work on “A Song For Europe”. Paul Thompson’s drumming is never better (just listen to his power drumming throughout “The Thrill Of It All” or at the start of “Mother Of Pearl” and the sudden switch when the song changes down a gear – brilliant). Ferry’s lyrics are beautifully bitter sweet and perfectly sung (listen to the high notes that he reaches on the gorgeous “Just Like You”). And there are even touches of humour – the backing vocals on “Mother Of Pearl” are terrific – as Ferry sings ‘well I’ve been up all night’ the backing vocals chip in with a sarcastic ‘again?’ which is a very clever touch. Also very funny are the strident German vocals on “Bitter Sweet” as the oompah chorus contrasts brilliantly with the lovely oboe-led verses, and the cry of ‘ahhhh more champagne…’ in “If It Takes All Night” always makes me laugh - the imagery of Ferry smoothly stalking his way round party after party would come to haunt him in later years, but back in 1974 that’s exactly what he was doing.  

Both albums are so good, but for me Country Life just edges out Stranded for position as my favourite RM album. Mainly because of the beauty and self pitying melancholy of “A Really Good Time” which contains one of my all time favourite Ferry lyrics and arguably Jobson’s prettiest violin work.

But whatever, they are both superb records.

bowie 1971

And further to the final Ziggy Stardust show I had fun with a bizarre collocation of Bowie tracks from 1971. This bunch of songs included some demos of tracks that made it to Hunky Dory, some demos that didn't, some other completely finished songs, some rough and ready rehearsals, some sung by DB, some sung by his friends, some excellent, some… not quite so excellent…

The ones I can remember include -

"Rupert The Riley". Yes indeed, a song about Dave’s car… sung by a slightly seedy character David and Angie had met at the Sombrero nightclub called Mickey King. He was apparently murdered in the mid 1970s after some sort of narcotic deal went bad. Anyway, the song is terrific. Daft as heck, but great fun and the beep beeps were recycled nine years later on "Fashion".

"Lightning Frightening" which is basically the song "Dirty Dirty" from Crazy Horse’s 1971 debut album sans Neil. Exactly the same music and arrangement but with Bowie’s vocal melody and lyrics instead. What a cheek. Still not a terribly good song in either incarnation.

"Miss Peculiar (How Lucky You Are)" – a very melodramatic piano tune in a sort of waltz time. With its oddly staged singing this wouldn’t have been out of place in some sort of musical theatre and shows how Bowie’s writing in 1971 was all over the place.

"Lady Stardust" – recorded at the same session in March 1971 as "Miss Peculiar" is this demo version. Which is pretty much identical to the finished version that appeared on the Ziggy album in 1972.

"Looking For A Friend" from the Arnold Corns sessions. AC was a made up band fronted by Bowie’s costume maker Fred Burrett, who styled himself as the more exotic Freddie Burretti. Although Bowie deemed even that name was too ordinary and for AC purposes Freddie became Rudi Valentino! Although he had the looks, Freddie couldn’t actually sing terribly well, but this didn't matter as DB was basically using Arnold Corns as a front - so he could still keep issuing songs whilst trying to extricate himself from his Mercury Records contract. "Looking For A Friend" was attempted on numerous occasions throughout 1971, firstly with Arnold Corns, then with a mix of the Corns musicians and the Spiders and later still during the Ziggy sessions in the Autumn. It’s a pretty good song, a bit ramshackle but in a good Mick Taylor era Stones manner. Pity it never really got finished.

"Shadowman" – another somewhat ramshackle recording of a terrifically good song. Elements of this were nicked from a Biff Rose tune called "The Man" (Rose was a big favourite of Bowie’s – he also wrote "Fill Your Heart" which DB covered on Hunky Dory). Bowie himself re-recorded the track as a gorgeous Mike Garson led ballad for the Toy project in 2000.

"Man In The Middle" – another Arnold Corns song and mainly sung by co-writer and AC guitarist Mark Carr-Pritchard. Bowie joins in the harmonies and Mick Ronson adds some urgently stabbing guitar work which he then recycled into the main riff of "Hang On To Yourself" later in the year.

"Moonage Daydream" – the earliest version of this song from January 1971 is horridly weak and limp. Nothing like the tour de force from the Ziggy album. This is also peppered with embarrassing Americanisms as DB weedily mutters things like "far out" with very little conviction. The hopelessly lumpen drumming doesn’t help either.

"Bombers" - one of the most famous Hunky Dory out-takes as it was on the album until a very late stage when, for reasons unknown, it was replaced by "Fill Your Heart". It’s another very stagey song and DB sings in an oddly mannered way, but it’s quite good fun in its way.

There are lots of other songs from this hugely prolific period. I doubt that Bowie ever again wrote quite as many songs in such a short period of time; and most of them were absolutely brilliant.

the last ziggy stardust concert

Whilst on holiday I took the opportunity to listen again to my restored version of the final Ziggy Stardust performance. This took place at the end of a very long and successful tour which climaxed at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 3 1973. Bowie may have been worn out but he still delivered a solid show which ended with a special guest (Jeff Beck) and a major surprise.  

It’s a hugely significant gig, probably not one of the best Ziggy concerts, and certainly not one of the best recorded shows. The concert sound was recorded very hastily as the decision to film the show was only taken the day before. Lack of time to set up mics and test the sound balances leave the raw recordings sounding very brittle and thin. This may be one of the reasons that the show wasn’t issued in late 1973 as planned. The tapes sat on a shelf for 10 years until DB finally allowed the film to be issued on video in 1983 along with a remixed and (not very well) overdubbed soundtrack album. In 2005 the film was remastered again for DVD and Tony Visconti spent a long time working his magic on the soundtrack. The 2005 remaster is a big step up from the 1983 release, but there was only so much that Visconti could do. Most of the 1983 overdubs were removed, though he kept some of the added backing vocals on "Moonage Daydream" and "Time" as Ronno’s original vocals were sung off mic.

But even this reissue was incomplete. The DVD features far more of the intro so to the remastered 2005 cd I’ve added the DVD stage announcements and crowd noise. Mike Garson’s piano medley of Bowie tunes which was played as an overture to the gig (and which appeared on the web a year or so back in excellent quality) is now back in it's place at the start of the show. Then I cleaned up the two songs which Jeff Beck refused to allow a release – "The Jean Genie" which slips into "Love Me Do" and which has been available since the mid 1970s on bootleg, and then the version of "Round and Round" which Beck also played on and which somehow appeared in trading circles about 20 years ago. The quality of "The Jean Genie" was fine, it needed a bit of boosting but it’s otherwise a good recording. "Round And Round" is more muffled and rather distant, and there’s not too much that can be done with it, but just as I was about to restore it, a raw sound desk recording of the two Beck tracks slipped out onto the internet. Whilst I decided to stick with the bootleg "Jean Genie" (as it sounded more listenable than the sometimes harsh soundboard), the improved version of "Round And Round" was a marvellous and timely find. 

After the two Jeff Beck assisted songs Bowie stepped up to the mic and thanked the crew and the band and then he said, "This particular show will remain with us the longest, because, not only is it the last show of the tour, but... it's the last show we'll ever do." The following "Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide" is perhaps a little workmanlike musically, though DB gives it everything he’s got. One reason for the rather muted band performance is probably that none of the band (bar Mick Ronson) knew anything about the retirement and they were as shocked as the audience!

In my restoration I used the retirement announcement from the bootleg as the official recording oddly sounds very thin and lacks the atmosphere of the boot in which the utter shock of the audience is extremely clear. 

Anyway, after all that, it’s still a good gig, though perhaps thought of more highly than it should be purely because of the historical significance, rather than the musical quality. Some of the songs are brilliantly played and sung, but some are, frankly, a bit of a mess. There is a real sense that both DB and the Spiders are exhausted. The pre-gig announcements refer to 70 gigs in 65 days which is a very heavy schedule, so it’s little wonder that things are getting a touch frazzled. For example, "Cracked Actor" is pretty awful and "Watch That Man" suffers from too fast a tempo and lack of finesse. On the other hand "White Light / White Heat" is tremendous, "Space Oddity" is genuinely majestic and "My Death" is simply stunning. "Moonage Daydream" is rather marvellous too, as is the very neat medley of "Wild Eyed Boy" / "All The Young Dudes" / "Oh! You Pretty Things". "The Jean Genie" is perhaps a little too enthusiastic and seems oddly sloppy in places (and someone, possibly Jeff Beck, is out of tune) but it is tremendous fun. The retirement announcement still sends shivers down my spine and the stunned and disbelieving crowd is more than audible at that point.

Of course you should never believe anything that David Bowie says - 11 months later he was embarking upon the Diamond Dogs tour, arguably the most ambitious concert tour ever staged in North America. Wish he'd come out of retirement one more time...

neil young & crazy horse - americana

Giving Neil Young and Crazy Horses’s Americana another blast today and perhaps I’ve been a little hasty to dismiss it as a throwaway record. 

This is the Great American Folk songbook as thrashed out by curmudgeonly old men in denim and flannel shirts, standing in a draughty old barn trying to avoid the horse poo. Then the contrary old git has had the gall to overdub choirs and backing vocals as if these songs were actually substantial enough to warrant such treatment. Most of the tunes have been Horsed and so don’t really sound like the more familiar folk songs / nursery rhymes that many of these songs became. Most contain surprisingly dark lyrics that were lost as the songs became sanitized over the long years. Neil has put them back. So lots of death and hangin’ and shootin’ as befits songs written a century and half ago.

I'd say that about the half the record is very very good indeed. Solid Horse. The record works best on the less familiar songs – six minutes of "She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain" blasted out Horse-style is not really my cup of tea, but a song like "High Flying Bird" sounds exactly like the sorts of Neil / Horse tracks that found their homes on Zuma or Ragged Glory. Some of the songs are perhaps too long – at 8 minutes "Tom Dula" is maybe twice as long as it needs to be – but others work well at their lengths. For example, "Travel On" is nearly 7 minutes but doesn’t seem like it.

The oldest songs are from the 1800s, "Oh Susannah" (which was later reworked in the 1960s as "Venus" – you know, ‘she’s got it, oh baby she’s got it…’) and "Clementine" both sound great as done by the Horse. If those good ol’ frontiersmen back then had had access to whacking great Marshall stacks, Billy Talbot’s monstrous bass, Poncho’s growling guitar, Ralph’s thudding drums and Neil’s faithful Old Black guitar, then these good ol’ folk songs would have sounded exactly like this.

Still not sure what to make of the Horses’s electric doowop attack on "Get A Job" (a relative newie from the 1950s) although it’s worth noting that Billy and Ralph started their careers singing doowop on street corners with Danny Whitten as Danny and the Memories in the early 1960s. "God Save The Queen" still completely baffles me, however. What on earth were they thinking? But on the whole the album is growing on me and it certainly blows the cobwebs away.