boysmithers

This is amazing front to back. Possibly even great than Ladies & Gents.

Amazing "nature techno" album, lots of woodblock noises, it really puts you into tropical island on the cover. It's a shame they moved away into dronier territory after this album.

Monstrous archival release from the band at their peak. This is highlights from an even bigger million CD box set

Disc 1: I listened to the 14 minute "Birdsong" while drifting in and out of sleep (this is not a bad thing!). They chop out a great version of "Brown Eyed Woman" featuring Keith Godchaux's saloon piano (this song really has become a grower on my ears). "Truckin'>Jam" is the first major excursion of the album with some brutal bass chords from Phil.

Disc 2 is complete insanity – an ALBUM LENGTH "Playing in the Band" - but it is the best song on here by a mile (or 45 miles). The highlights of this track is theSonic… More

This is only currently available as part of the Grateful Dead Records Collection compilation, but I'm reviewing it here as I wanted to listen to "Steal Your Face". It was an official live album so I don't know if there are vocal overdubs, but it all sounds pretty good to me.

There's a very strange running order to begin with, alternating between Bob's Chuck Berry covers and Jerry's beautiful ballads, but those ballads ("Cold Rain and Snow" and "Stella Blue" are spot on.

There's a big dip in quality at the start of the second disc, but it is redeemed by a inappropriately laid back take on "Casey Jones".

Nowhere near as good as Skull and Roses or Europe '72… More

The Lord is back with his second proper album. Silver Dragons and Moonrise Over Isengard are where the Lord really comes into his own, these are glorious flute and trumpet blowouts and are possibly the first great LL tracks - if you do not enjoy these, then LL is probably not for you. Mines of Moria is a short but sweet track with mellow harps and woodwind. The back half of the track probably inspired Fief, it sounds more like dancing deep in a forest than working in a mine though... This would be a good album, but obviously the loathsome cover drags it down...

The Lord's second relase. There is only one worthwhile track here: Quendi Amongst Valmar with its goofy and loveable melody. The other tracks are marred by hamfisted guitar and attempts at singing. The final track, a cover, is shockingly poor but what do you expect given the lousy source material?

Lord Lovidicus' first album (a short album, or a long EP?) is surprisingly minimal and chilled out considering his later 30 minute trumpet sessions. It peaks with track two Gazing Upon Night Sky From Dungeon Halls which really gets it right in terms of undemanding background music. The next track, Within The Castle Garden continues in the same vein. The cover & the multipart mini epic are less engaging, there are some good bits in the latter but also some really annoying stereo panning and problems with repetition. The album ends on a high note, however with a nice bit of winter synth: A Frozen Landscape (Outro) I can't remember if LL returned to this style ever. In summary, not… More

I listened to this album as part of the Musicbrainz Album Club

This was a completely new artist to me, from the album cover and release date I was expecting some kind of psychedelic rock, but this is more psychotic! The instrumentation is very sparse, percussion and acoustic guitar, so the main focus is the vocals. The vocalist has a great, raw and rough voice, he really pushes it into a bellow or growl and that's when it sounds best. I'm going to hazard a guess and say that this was marketed as some kind of "voodoo rock" at the time, several tracks certainly have a ritual feel, with the relentless percussion and chanting. The best of these is Paul… More

Two very different tracks. Ether Gyll is reminiscent of a long-form Pye Corner Audio track. Old and lo-fi sounding synthetic and drums making a hypnotic trip with subtle variations in the patterns emerging over time. Tenter Ground is a bit more polished with a loping, less minimal beat and strange noises floating in and out like backwards, strangled saxes and psychedelic Indian insects. Both tracks have a kind of industrial chug (industrial as in abandoned coal fields and factories, not industrial music). Recommended to PCA freaks, track 1 especially.

In places, this sounds like the ramblings of a confused, elderly man (which is what is is) but that doesn't mean that it's not also great (in places). Strong backing from The Orb throughout, but the standout is Golden Clouds, a remake of Little Fluffy Clouds.

Here's a idea - take some of Bob Marley's best-loved songs and remove all traces of the man himself. Sounds terrible, right? Wrong! This is an hour of great, minimal music. It's not heavy or rhythmic enough to be dub but there's too much going on for it to be ambient either. Bill Laswell can just focus on one of Family Man's great bass parts or some organ (which can sound quite creepy on its own) a vocal sample or some percussion.

I've grown up with these songs, and spent ages playing the basslines so it is really nice to hear them in a new way, this remix album of half a century old songs from quarter of a… More