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Various artists - The butterfly ball and the grasshopper's feast
Dream Theatre - Dream Theatre

The Mighty Imperials - Thunder Chicken. Funky like The Meters which ain't no bad thing.

Deep Purple - Concerto for group and orchestra
Elton John - The lockdown sessions
Band of Skulls - Baby darling doll face honey
Barathrum - Legions of perkele

Crosby Stills & Nash - CSN disc 1
Billy Bragg - The Million Things That Never Happened
And to change the tempo a tad
Judas Priest - Screaming For Vengeance

Magnum - Wings of heaven
Deep Purple - The book of talen
Mastadon - Hushed and grim
Joe - Bonamassa - Time clocks
Beth Hart - War in my mind

Vivaldi 'The Four Seasons' (Kenneth Sillito) (1973)



Max Richter 'Recomposed - The Four Seasons' (2012)



These two recordings from 40 years apart very much encapsulate and symbolise the musical journey my life has taken me on. The first, recorded in 1972, was one of my original childhood set of Classical cassettes and introduced me to the world of Antonio Vivaldi, who remains my very favourite composer to this day. While it isn't the most dramatic or technically-mind-blowing version, it has an accessible charm that is all its' own and I have recently managed to track down an old LP copy, allowing me to relive the wonder I experienced way back then.

Max Richter's version is a different beast from a different time. Incorporating large sections of the original work into the larger frame of 21st century sonics and contemporary colourings (Richter isn't just a maker of film music and has also collaborated with Trance outfit FSOL on occasion). The 'modern' rendering of Vivaldi's old chestnut brings enough innovation to make it a marvellous and emotive listen in its own right.

One record tells me how I became a music-lover, the second shows me how far I have come in appreciation of what music means to me.

Rod Stewart - Never a dull moment
Lucifer - Lucifer ii

That Cat Was Clean! - The Mod Side of Jazz (Various Artists compilation)

Wire - Document & Eyewitness discs 1 & 2. A series of concerts said by one reviewer (I seem to recall) to be the band commiting suicide in public. When I got the first version many years ago I was somewhat perplexed by this I must say. It certainly bore no resemblance to The Ideal Copy which I think came out at around the same time. However now I think this was a group on the way to somewhere interesting that they never quite reached. Maybe if they'd managed to not break up they might have got to a very different musical place from that reached by the subsequent reformations and solo projects.

Grumpytim wrote: ↑Wed Nov 03, 2021 1:53 pm Wire - Document & Eyewitness discs 1 & 2. A series of concerts said by one reviewer (I seem to recall) to be the band commiting suicide in public. When I got the first version many years ago I was somewhat perplexed by this I must say. It certainly bore no resemblance to The Ideal Copy which I think came out at around the same time. However now I think this was a group on the way to somewhere interesting that they never quite reached. Maybe if they'd managed to not break up they might have got to a very different musical place from that reached by the subsequent reformations and solo projects.

Ideal Copy came out in 85ish (after the band reformed), iirc. Doc&E-W is from 81. The gig at the Electric Ballroom seemed to be a pre-meditated 'fuck off' to everything that was 'expected' of them. Which is, perhaps, why it is one of the most interesting and disconcerting live albums ever released. The punk crowd were somewhat pissed off, having expected to mosh through their favourite 100 second ditties. The band taunted them with 10 seconds or so of their 'hit' 12XU, before telling them that that was quite enough of that. A shame they didn't film it. I still have the original cassette release.

I used to play 'Eels Sang Lino' to the trainees at work. They were in no position to argue...