This may well be my album of the year. Figures was released back in May, so I have given it a while before scribbling about it, to let its gorgeous and beguiling wonkiness thoroughly infuse itself into my weary cranium.…
View More Aksak Maboul – FiguresAuthor: Roger Trenwith
Das Rad – Adios Al Futuro
Perhaps with one panel of the fold-out CD digipak leering at us with a picture of Johnson, Putin, Jong-un, and Trump, one in each of the quartered panel, and given the album title, it’s just as well this journey through…
View More Das Rad – Adios Al FuturoAnekdoten – Official Bootleg: Live in Japan 1997
Back in the days when people were shorter and did what they oughta, and before the advent of the instantly available music fix soon to be supplied by the dubious delights of the interwebs, the only way to buy obscure…
View More Anekdoten – Official Bootleg: Live in Japan 1997Tim Smith
Dr. Timothy Charles Smith (3rd July 1961 – 22nd July 2020) Roger Trenwith: I feel something of an imposter writing this, as I never got to see Cardiacs, and I never knew Tim Smith, but such is the impact his…
View More Tim SmithA Different Aspect #40
In this update we feature: • Echo Rain – Western Skies [EP] • Kaprekar’s Constant – Meanwhile… [EP] • Vivienne Mort – Aocbia (Досвід) • Raoul Björkenheim – Solar Winds • Nick Marsh – Waltzing Bones • Sophie Tassignon –…
View More A Different Aspect #40Gary Husband & Markus Reuter – Music Of Our Times
Stellar pianist Gary Husband was on tour as a guest player with Stick Men (Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, and Markus Reuter) in Japan, when, due to the sudden lockdown as a result of Covid-19, the tour was abruptly cancelled. Temporarily…
View More Gary Husband & Markus Reuter – Music Of Our TimesSurrender To The Rhythm: The London Pub Rock Scene of the Seventies
“The songs were all from very different backgrounds, but because they were played in pubs, it got called ‘pub rock’ by the music press. It wasn’t a specific music, other than that there were no lengthy, tedious solos. It was…
View More Surrender To The Rhythm: The London Pub Rock Scene of the SeventiesGuru Guru – Live In China
The long-running Deutschrock originals celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2018, and on the last day of this merry year, band leader and drummer extraordinaire Mani Neumeier will be a mere 80 years young. In between those two anniversaries, on 19th…
View More Guru Guru – Live In ChinaRevolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus – Songs Of Yearning/Nocturnes
With a band name like that, it’s easy to get attention, and for all the wrong reasons. Admittedly, I only gave this a once over because of the name, half expecting to turn it off once the Bible-thumping started. The…
View More Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus – Songs Of Yearning/Nocturnestētēma – Necroscape
Mike Patton is something of a musical polymath. Away from the two main bands he’s known for lie all sorts of musical diversions, all coloured with varying degrees of strangeitude. One of them, but probably not the oddest (that’s Fantomas)…
View More tētēma – Necroscape