another rousing victory at villa park

aston villa 1 v 0 cardiff city

top ten albums - no. 3

Dear Sheddists,

our third visit to the record racks takes us to the much sunnier climes of Jamaica.

I was vaguely aware of Jamaican music as a child through early ska hits on the UK Trojan label - the likes of  'Liquidator' by the Harry J Allstars, 'Double Barrel' by Dave and Ansell Collins and 'Al Capone' by Prince Buster - but it was John Peel's fabulous Top Gear Show on Radio 1 that really turned me on to it.

Reggae, like most other established musical forms, is fragmented into a bewildering myriad of sub-genres from rock-steady to ragga. It was, however, dub that really caught my attention.  

I had never heard anything remotely like it before - the hissing hi-hat cymbals, pounding bass, smoky echoed vocals and fractured piano runs that emerged from nowhere only to disappear the very next moment.  I simply had to explore this further.

At first my dub play-list was put together through the medium of a make-shift home-studio. This comprised an Akai twin tape-deck, an FM radio and pillows for sound baffles. It proved surprisingly successful, and two or three times a night I would leap up to press the 'record' button as the latest white label from Jamaica hit the Top Gear airwaves.

I found myself in need of harder stuff and the very first dub album I managed to track down in a local record store was 'Dubbing With the Observer' by the Observer All Stars. Based largely on rhythms showcased by Dennis Brown it's a classic in its own right.

Notwithstanding the strong claims of this album to a place in my top ten I've chosen instead 'King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown' by Augustus Pablo, a masterpiece in the art of dub.  His trademark melodica blows delicate and haunting Far Eastern scales across the entirety of the record.

I have an original Jamaican pressing of this record on the Yard Music label, complete with details on the back cover of the distribution centre at 15 Tangerine Place, Kingston from which it was sold.  Needless to say, it takes pride of place in my vinyl collection.

Here's the title track - don't forget to turn it up loud!

top ten albums - no. 2

Dear Sheddists,

my  second 'Top Ten' album is 'Here's The Tender Coming' by the utterly fantastic Unthanks. Their music goes well beyond the modern folk idiom into ethereal realms that have to be heard to be believed. 

In addition to re-imagining traditional folk songs and writing their own the Unthanks repertoire includes interpretations of music by King Crimson, Antony & the Johnsons and Robert Wyatt. Their most recent album features the work of Molly Drake, mother of the late Nick Drake and a fine musician in her own right.

I could have chosen any of their albums - they're all astonishingly brilliant - but I picked this one because it contains 'Annachie Gordon' a truly sublime take on a song of loss and unrequited love which dates back to the start of the nineteenth century. 

Folk music in its purest form is anything but anodyne.  It speaks of love, death, longing, separation, pain and suffering at the very deepest level. Here, the intertwined voices of Rachel and Becky Unthank float above a lovingly sensitive arrangement by Adrian McNally, Rachel's husband. I've heard this song so many, many different times, both on record and live, and it never ceases to reduce me to tears.

We've seen this band perform more than any other and each time we see them we come away enriched and reflective. Here are some photos from last year's Home Gathering, an annual Festival organised by the Unthanks in their native north-east.

top ten albums - no. 1

Dear Sheddists,

one of my friends has issued a challenge, via Facebook, to post the top ten albums that have influenced me most.  I thought I would post my replies here as well so I can go back to them at a later date and see if my tastes change with the passing years.

First up, I find it very difficult to choose just ten albums!  I've been exploring music for over forty five years, during which time a significant part of my children's inheritance has been invested prudently in the accumulation of sundry records, cassettes (remember them!) and CDs.  No MP3s here, thank you very much!

So where to start?  Should it be a hard-hitting collection of popular top-ranked albums or a more gentle meander down a path less traveled?  I've sought to take a middle-line between the two in the hope you may encounter something unfamiliar in these ten postings you might want to explore further yourself.

Let's kick things off with the self-titled debut from The Doors, one of my favourite bands of all time. I first became aware of them from the film, 'Apocalypse Now!' The soundtrack featured 'The End', the legendary tour de force which brings their extraordinary debut album to a tumultuous climax. If you're unfamiliar with the song it's an acid-tinged exploration of the Oedipus myth.

Censored for its initial release, catch the unexpurgated version in more recent remasterings to hear Jim Morrison in all his majestic foul-mouthed pomp!

The band created six very different studio albums during their brief existence, each of which has something to offer. They had it all - blistering blues, funky jazz chops, existential poetry and, in Jim Morrison, a front man who on a good night could take the music anywhere he wanted. A plethora of live albums have been released since his sad, premature death. Some are badly recorded cash-ins, but the best match anything the band did in the studio.

The Doors played an important part in the soundtrack to my wife and I falling in love as teenagers. The regular DJ at the University discos we attended was a huge fan of their music and winding back the years I still have very, very fond memories of embracing on the dance-floor to classics like, 'Light my Fire', 'Roadhouse Blues', 'LA Woman' and 'Riders on the Storm'.

So let me close my eyes for one moment and let the music carry me back ..



 'There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors'.

James Douglas Morrison

dreams and nightmares - no. 80

the attempted annihilation of id - immolation

At long last the nightmare is at an end.  Freed from the primal instincts that shackle us to our mortal coil we can sleep safe in the knowledge id has been slain.

Or can we .... ?

dreams and nightmares - no. 79

the attempted annihilation of id - hung out to dry

The original image of id has become progressively degraded during the process of annihilation. Thankfully we're approaching the end now.

dreams and nightmares - no. 78

the attempted annihilation of id - monochrome drowning

In many ways I prefer these studies to the colour versions. What do you think?