The Album Review Club - Week #145 - (page 1923) - Tellin' Stories - The Charlatans

GoatersLeftShin said:
Ok, I'll put you out of your misery! I don't think anyone would guess this.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading, and listening, through these music threads so I thought I'd like to contribute an album for you to listen to. I hope you enjoy listening to it just as much as I've enjoyed listening to all yours. And a big thanks to @BlueHammer85 and @RobMCFC for putting these together, I've found lots of new music to enjoy.

I could've easily picked Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, Revolver by The Beatles. Or Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones, Ok Computer by Radiohead, Pocket Symphony by Air or Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. Not to mention anything by Joni Mitchell or Steely Dan.

However, the part I've really enjoyed with the albums the most is the ones where it's something I've not heard before. I loved @KnaresboroughBlue 's choice - something I didn't expect. I also enjoyed listening to Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk, Let It Be by The Replacements and Foxtrot by Genesis as well as others. So my choice is something that I don't think many people will have heard, but I love. I have listened to this I'd say once a month for about 20 years now and I've never got bored of it. But first a bit of a backstory of how I came to find and love it.

When I was growing up, the main music I heard was my Dad's and he was really into Yes, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell etc. I didn't appreciate it as a kid, but as I got older I love it now! However, there was two songs I remember hearing quite vividly in the early 80s which had a profound impact on me: The Model by Kraftwerk and Joan of Arc by OMD. I'd never really heard this...'futuristic sound' before. The sound only a synthesizer can make. It sounded so other-wordly and unusual to me. I must've listened to The Model hundreds of times after I recorded it! It was a song which lead me to start playing the keyboards (badly).

Back in the 80s you could easily learn to play songs like The Model on cheap keyboards. I could never dream of copying any prog rocker! My Mum n Dad got me a Yamaha keyboard and I copied Kraftwerk songs even though it was hopeless - my £50 Yamaha couldn't cut it and in truth I got bored of it a bit. It might sound odd, but even though a lot of music in the 80s was made with synths, it wasn't the synth sound I liked as it sounded too modern - the original, soft, analogue sound. I think there was a certain naivety about the sound I loved.

By the time the late 80s came around I lost all interest in synths especially once the Stone Roses etc came in. I dropped the keyboard and started playing the guitar. However, after a few years I was getting bored of guitars and one day I heard The Model again and basically rediscovered my love of synths. I very nearly chose Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk as my album (I know The Model isn't on it). I am a big fan of pretty much any music from the 1970s and I started looking at the origins of synth music and discovered ambient music. The starting point was Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" and I found it astonishing that anyone would write music that didn't have to be listened to actively! I had no idea music could be like that! I found the whole idea of it nonsense and yet fascinating - surely there couldn't be any decent music like that?

For those who've not come across it before, ambient music is designed to sit in the background and be unobtrusive. It doesn't grab your attention, it's not meant to. There's no choruses, sometimes no form or structure, it's meant to enhance the atmosphere. It could be music for lifts, meditation, a 'soundscape', noise or whatever. However, when it's done well it's superb. It does take a certain amount of listening to as it's very different to pop, rock or jazz.

I soon started scouring the internet for reviews of 70s ambient music as I knew I would find that soft synth sound I loved. Instead, I found this entire "world" of music that was never played on the radio or TV, never really discussed, never bothered with apart from a few websites dedicated to ambient music. I was finding some music that I found astonishing in it's ambition, particularly given the technological limitations of the times.

I loved ambient from the off and went from Brian Eno's "Music for airports", through to Steve Hillage's "Rainbow Dome Musick", Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene" and "Equinoxe" to Tangerine Dream's "Phaedra" and "Rubycon". Phaedra and Rubycon were superb and reminded me of the worlds that Roger Dean drew for Yes album covers which I adored looking at as a kid. I started to remember the "other-worldly" sound from The Model and Kraftwerk with "new ears". I loved it. However, none of these albums were a patch on one I found which absolutely blew me away:

Planetary Unfolding by Michael Stearns:



Planetary Unfolding is an ambient masterpiece.

It was recorded in 1981 by the American artist Michael Stearns. He composed it on a synth and it is based on a dream he had where all of the Universe was made up of sounds. It sounds absolutely pretentious, but it's not - I can't think of any other piece of music which sounds so perfect to describe what space sounds like. It is regarded as a classic of ambient music. It can be played in the background but you'd do it a huge disservice.

There's 6 pieces on the album and it only lasts 45 minutes which is quite short for an ambient album. Some of the songs are on Spotify, but the full album isn't sadly. If you want to listen to it in full, you will have to listen to it on YouTube. The tracks are:

In The Beginning...
Toto, I've A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore
Where Ever Two Or More Are Gathered...
Life In The Gravity Well
As The Earth Kissed The Moon
Something's Moving

I won't go through each track, I just think you have to listen to it for yourself. The opening track begins from a low rumbling to a crescendo at around 5 minutes where it sounds like the entire Universe has been created, it's the only words I've got to describe it.

I expect a lot of people will find this something quite different. It's not an album to make you move, sing or dance to. It's there to provide background atmosphere, meditate or just sit outside watching the stars. It moves slowly, builds up slowly and gives you the time to listen to it. If you persevere with it, you'll find so much in the music. It is simply beautiful. In my mind, rightly or wrongly, I think this could be played by a classical orchestra and I kind of see it as a 'classical piece'.

I can put this album on at work and just get absorbed in the sound and block out any distractions. I can put this on at night with a few beers and just relax. If I've been listening to something like Rage Against The Machine, it calms you down and soothes! If you've had a mad Pantera-half-hour, this is ideal to cleanse the ears! Even though it is a synth album, I find that it has such a natural, organic sound, I really can't describe the sound at all - you just have to listen to it. If someone asked me what a fly-by of the early Universe sounded like it would be In the Beginning! What sound does a star make as it's pulled into a black hole? Life in the gravity well. It's got that epic "size" of sound.

I am astonished it was made 40 years ago, it's not aged at all. I also find it astonishing how anyone could 'hear' this in their head and then start to find the sounds and put it together. To make each piece sound different, yet blend to the next movement so naturally just astounds me. The music doesn't change much, but it changes a lot too.

It is something very different to the rest of my favourite albums, but I love it just as much as any Beatles, Stones, Bjork etc album. It's just different, very different. And that's what I love in my music, different sounds for different moods.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed your choices!
Click to expand...

Just downloaded it for 71 pence off iomoio.com.Really liking the first track so far.
 
Onholiday(somemightsay) said:
Wonderful write up - can't wait..............
Click to expand...
Yes, with the quality of all of these write-ups, I’m thinking my next book should be “20 Great Albums loved by Man City Fans”, and apart from a bit of writing to link the whole thing together, I wouldn’t have to do much work.
 
There's no competition from me. It's just something to do. haha. I tell people I'm currently writing album reviews in my spare time.. Impressive! True though. I get fuckin whacked out my head and listen to music from the days long gone. haha. We'll get to hear all kinds eventually. If it's kept going with some new, YOUNGER contributors. Not young enough that they're gonna pick Rag N bone Guy or something, though.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
I don’t think I was being competitive about it! That particular Heads record — over and above other TH records even — was the subject of nearly universal critical acclaim . . . at the time. That it resonates or resonated with a broad sample of listeners here shouldn’t be surprising -- that's all I meant by including all those comments, definitely not that anyone here “should” have liked it if they didn’t! I'm sorry if it came across that way!

I just think that the fact that it has broad appeal to so many — or did when it was released — means more to its rating here than the fact that it was first out of the hat. I’m pretty sure on the opposite end that had the Def Leppard record been first out it still would have been panned (and I liked it more than most!).

I’ve got absolutely no issue with folks not liking RiL, none at all. No value judgments! As I wrote before, what I’ve noticed here is that some people prefer music to listen to and some to move to — many like both (like me) but generally I think many of us are biased one way or another. I’m a movement guy more than a listening guy; for folks that aren't, TH (or that TH record in particular) isn't likely to be that appealing.
Click to expand...
Firstly I’ll apologise for coming across like I was criticising you. Far from it.
I like your passion and get what I think is your humour, that’s spelt correctly by the way, I’ve learned a fair deal and listened to new stuff from your posts alone.
I more saw it as a demonstration as to why I said I don’t really like these polls, by Rolling Stone or NME or whoever else and I was always reluctant to get involved in music threads that have their own lists of one to hundred, or whatever.
Not so much because of my own indecision, but I see my taste from the sixty-seventies through to now as ever changing and evolving as I get older. That doesn’t mean I don’t like what I liked back then, but often means I appreciate now what I didn’t before.
Hindsight and all that.

I love the debate and hearing new music in particular but don’t have any interest in where that places anyone’s selection in a chart.
Listening to other peoples reasons for loving a piece helps me to maybe give things a go.

It was me being touchy tbh.
 
Last edited:
GoatersLeftShin said:
Ok, I'll put you out of your misery! I don't think anyone would guess this.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading, and listening, through these music threads so I thought I'd like to contribute an album for you to listen to. I hope you enjoy listening to it just as much as I've enjoyed listening to all yours. And a big thanks to @BlueHammer85 and @RobMCFC for putting these together, I've found lots of new music to enjoy.

I could've easily picked Sgt Pepper, Abbey Road, Revolver by The Beatles. Or Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones, Ok Computer by Radiohead, Pocket Symphony by Air or Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield. Not to mention anything by Joni Mitchell or Steely Dan.

However, the part I've really enjoyed with the albums the most is the ones where it's something I've not heard before. I loved @KnaresboroughBlue 's choice - something I didn't expect. I also enjoyed listening to Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk, Let It Be by The Replacements and Foxtrot by Genesis as well as others. So my choice is something that I don't think many people will have heard, but I love. I have listened to this I'd say once a month for about 20 years now and I've never got bored of it. But first a bit of a backstory of how I came to find and love it.

When I was growing up, the main music I heard was my Dad's and he was really into Yes, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell etc. I didn't appreciate it as a kid, but as I got older I love it now! However, there was two songs I remember hearing quite vividly in the early 80s which had a profound impact on me: The Model by Kraftwerk and Joan of Arc by OMD. I'd never really heard this...'futuristic sound' before. The sound only a synthesizer can make. It sounded so other-wordly and unusual to me. I must've listened to The Model hundreds of times after I recorded it! It was a song which lead me to start playing the keyboards (badly).

Back in the 80s you could easily learn to play songs like The Model on cheap keyboards. I could never dream of copying any prog rocker! My Mum n Dad got me a Yamaha keyboard and I copied Kraftwerk songs even though it was hopeless - my £50 Yamaha couldn't cut it and in truth I got bored of it a bit. It might sound odd, but even though a lot of music in the 80s was made with synths, it wasn't the synth sound I liked as it sounded too modern - the original, soft, analogue sound. I think there was a certain naivety about the sound I loved.

By the time the late 80s came around I lost all interest in synths especially once the Stone Roses etc came in. I dropped the keyboard and started playing the guitar. However, after a few years I was getting bored of guitars and one day I heard The Model again and basically rediscovered my love of synths. I very nearly chose Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk as my album (I know The Model isn't on it). I am a big fan of pretty much any music from the 1970s and I started looking at the origins of synth music and discovered ambient music. The starting point was Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" and I found it astonishing that anyone would write music that didn't have to be listened to actively! I had no idea music could be like that! I found the whole idea of it nonsense and yet fascinating - surely there couldn't be any decent music like that?

For those who've not come across it before, ambient music is designed to sit in the background and be unobtrusive. It doesn't grab your attention, it's not meant to. There's no choruses, sometimes no form or structure, it's meant to enhance the atmosphere. It could be music for lifts, meditation, a 'soundscape', noise or whatever. However, when it's done well it's superb. It does take a certain amount of listening to as it's very different to pop, rock or jazz.

I soon started scouring the internet for reviews of 70s ambient music as I knew I would find that soft synth sound I loved. Instead, I found this entire "world" of music that was never played on the radio or TV, never really discussed, never bothered with apart from a few websites dedicated to ambient music. I was finding some music that I found astonishing in it's ambition, particularly given the technological limitations of the times.

I loved ambient from the off and went from Brian Eno's "Music for airports", through to Steve Hillage's "Rainbow Dome Musick", Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene" and "Equinoxe" to Tangerine Dream's "Phaedra" and "Rubycon". Phaedra and Rubycon were superb and reminded me of the worlds that Roger Dean drew for Yes album covers which I adored looking at as a kid. I started to remember the "other-worldly" sound from The Model and Kraftwerk with "new ears". I loved it. However, none of these albums were a patch on one I found which absolutely blew me away:

Planetary Unfolding by Michael Stearns:



Planetary Unfolding is an ambient masterpiece.

It was recorded in 1981 by the American artist Michael Stearns. He composed it on a synth and it is based on a dream he had where all of the Universe was made up of sounds. It sounds absolutely pretentious, but it's not - I can't think of any other piece of music which sounds so perfect to describe what space sounds like. It is regarded as a classic of ambient music. It can be played in the background but you'd do it a huge disservice.

There's 6 pieces on the album and it only lasts 45 minutes which is quite short for an ambient album. Some of the songs are on Spotify, but the full album isn't sadly. If you want to listen to it in full, you will have to listen to it on YouTube. The tracks are:

In The Beginning...
Toto, I've A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore
Where Ever Two Or More Are Gathered...
Life In The Gravity Well
As The Earth Kissed The Moon
Something's Moving

I won't go through each track, I just think you have to listen to it for yourself. The opening track begins from a low rumbling to a crescendo at around 5 minutes where it sounds like the entire Universe has been created, it's the only words I've got to describe it.

I expect a lot of people will find this something quite different. It's not an album to make you move, sing or dance to. It's there to provide background atmosphere, meditate or just sit outside watching the stars. It moves slowly, builds up slowly and gives you the time to listen to it. If you persevere with it, you'll find so much in the music. It is simply beautiful. In my mind, rightly or wrongly, I think this could be played by a classical orchestra and I kind of see it as a 'classical piece'.

I can put this album on at work and just get absorbed in the sound and block out any distractions. I can put this on at night with a few beers and just relax. If I've been listening to something like Rage Against The Machine, it calms you down and soothes! If you've had a mad Pantera-half-hour, this is ideal to cleanse the ears! Even though it is a synth album, I find that it has such a natural, organic sound, I really can't describe the sound at all - you just have to listen to it. If someone asked me what a fly-by of the early Universe sounded like it would be In the Beginning! What sound does a star make as it's pulled into a black hole? Life in the gravity well. It's got that epic "size" of sound.

I am astonished it was made 40 years ago, it's not aged at all. I also find it astonishing how anyone could 'hear' this in their head and then start to find the sounds and put it together. To make each piece sound different, yet blend to the next movement so naturally just astounds me. The music doesn't change much, but it changes a lot too.

It is something very different to the rest of my favourite albums, but I love it just as much as any Beatles, Stones, Bjork etc album. It's just different, very different. And that's what I love in my music, different sounds for different moods.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed your choices!
Click to expand...

Ok Goater.
You have a captive audience with me..
I’ve played it already. With the headphones on.
Do you want a first reaction or will I wait until others get a chance.
Should I give it a few swirls before commenting?
 
Great introduction, like everyone else‘s write ups I can see your passion.
this is exactly the sort of music that will suit my current situation of working from home in the morning and relaxing by the pool in the afternoon.
ive not heard much ambient music except ‘My life in the Bush of Ghosts’ but that was over 35yrs ago,hopefully I like this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.