Food for the starved

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Except for top of the line equipment and lovely orange red glowing light bulbs and a good jolt of electricity running through those wonderful amps some form of excitement is needed. This is often carried by a black piece of plastic called a vinyl record or a small shining disc called a compact disc.

You all heard of Norah Jones, Eva Cassidy, Rebecca Pidgeon, Cassandra Wilson, Sara K. and Mary Black, so those wont be discussed or brought up anymore, they are recommended but don’t feature in my top 30 anyway.

Top CD selection

This issue I recommend the 10+ best cd’s from my pop collection, I am not in to classical yet, so I cannot comment on what must have classical cd’s you really must have and for classical the choice is more difficult then for Jazz-Blues-Pop-Grunge because apart from it being taste dependent classical music has been around for a few century’s so the choice is obviously slightly bigger.

In the next issue we will go to the 10 recommended must-have classical records of some classical die-hard fans.

The Main criteria for selection are:

Value of musical content, emotional content and vocal content as well and it has to render well on a high-end system and makes you want more.

For the non-patient the complete list is reprinted with out all the Blabla at the end of this article.

The top 10 :

Cowboy Junkies

Awesome style, tailor made for me, suits my senses and tastes, I like lyrics and deep dark melodies when even my patience to sing along has gone I can just let myself float on the notes and it soothes me fine filling any type of void felt,this is my medicine.

Whites off earth now 1986 - Latent Recordings

The Trinity Sessions 1988 – Latent Recordings

200 More Miles 1995 - RCA

This 4 person band, compromised mainly of the family Timmins, has the particularity of recording in different places and using only one Clarec Ambiosonic microphone to obtain a natural way of mixing the approach is simple you only need to move instruments back and fort to get the desired mixing level and the sound never gets broken into separate tracks this is ideal for capturing the atmosphere of live recording.The band was still highly active in the 90’s, they expanded and in Margo Timmins there is this fantastic natural rough singer with awesome talent,somehow I haven’t bought all their albums, probably out of lack of time as I am a big fan of them.

I just remedied to this, I ordered all missing items at ridiculous low prices check the following website and order online www.maplemusic.com, however I haven’t heard the other recordings and hope they are as good as the ones I have.

Francis Cabrel

What can you expect, this French singer has a voice that is very strong in character like Edith Piaf and he writes beautiful lyrics, he is a wonderful composer and the total package is powerful and enthralling and is highly recommendable. But don’t buy his latest live recording, it’s not on par with the studio versions.

My most preferred records of him:

Cabrel Public – Album CD – 1984 – CBS

Samedi Soir sur la terre – Album – 1994 – Columbia

Sarbacane – Abum – 1989 – CBS

77/87 compilation – Album – 1987 – CBS

Mini biography, born in 11/1953 from Italien parents in France Astaffort, where he still lives with his family and has an active role in the community.

Only in his adolescence he discovers the guitar and is influenced by Dylan and Cohen.

He scored his first hit “Petite Marie” at the age of 21 and signed up with CBS,

meanwhile earning a living as a shoe salesman. His first album “Les murs de poussiere “ hit the streets in 1977.

Real big success came only with his 2^nd album “Les chemins de traverse” and from then on at a regular pace came the next albums each a bigger success then the previous one.

In France he is famous but his private life remains private,this to the big frustration of the media.

Bob Dylan

He is quite known and doesn’t need an introduction, in short this is poetry and music with a strong urge for a better world that we will never see alas, he makes his own style its not jazz, its not blues and it ain’t pop.

Oh Mercy, recorded in 1989 CBS records is a must have,

Track 5,

Man in the long black coat, is a number to listen to with closed eyes, every note is magically weaved closely and neatly with the others.

Short biography

Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in Minnesotta in 1941. Bobby Zimmerman went in the University of Minnesota. It was there where he discovered folk music and “Woody Guthrie”. Bobby changed chameleon like into a Guthrie clone. Bucknell his best friend recalls a particular visit from Bobby where he sported a Guthrie style cap and a coat hanger which was adapted to hold his harmonica,an instrument Bucknell had actually never seen Bobby play before. Bobby had just devoured Guthries autobiography 'Bound for Glory' and found himself a hero. On returning to the University he began calling himself Bob Dylan. The Clancy Brothers, an Irish folk outfit, remarked that Dylan was "Like a sponge" soaking up all the traditional folk tunes and lyrics. Indeed by 1961 his knowledge of Blues and Folk was so vast that whilst being interviewed on the "Cynthia Gooding Radio Show" he was able to perform amazing versions of old, and somewhat obscure, folk/blues songs. This is the first indication of the confidence of the twenty-year-old Dylan. Clearly Robert Zimmerman, the high school student who was quoted as "wanting to join 'Little Richard' " in his high school yearbook was dead and buried. Bob Dylan on the other hand was as he himself says "busy being born...". But this was not true in 1963 when the 'Freewheelin' album was released. Indeed, under the wing of newfound compatriot Joan Baez, Dylan involved himself in many of the protest rallies and demonstrations of the time, including the civil rights march on Washington. A young man throwing himself so vehemently into such social and political rebellion could hardly be described as merely a song and dance man. When Dylan refers to himself as just "a song & dance man" what we must consider is how to interpret this comment. It would appear that Dylan is simply using the phrase to try and detract from his protest/activist past. If we believe this to be true then the simplicity of the phrase must not be over exaggerated. Dylan may want us to simply 'leave him alone' and only interpret his music.

Talk Talk

A group mostly known for it’s junk pop and sensual melodies made an absolute masterpiece, I already liked them before and own most of their records so when I saw this one, one that I never heard from I thought well lets add it to my collection, and to my surprise it is by far the best they ever made, it is artistic, and this even on the highest level, it is musically ingenious, its everything except boring and its on par with The Oscar Peterson trio & Miles Davis. It was considered by the critics and the record label at the time as commercial suicide!!!!!

Spirit of Eden recorded in 1988 by EMI records ltd.

This is an absolute must have if one is to call himself an audiophile from my generation

Short biography

(Also interesting to note, they use the same recording technique as the Cowboy Junkies )

Not for the fainthearted but a piece of history about Talk Talk, compiled from excerpts of James Neiss biography on the band, and relevant to how much the record “Spirit of Eden” must have meant to the band.

At the heart of this band is singer/writer Mark Hollis. Born in Tottenham in 1955,he spent a year in 1983 writing new material and assembling a floating pool of musicians to record the second album, a process completed by the recruitment of producer Tim Friese-Greene, whose arrival proved to be a watershed in the band's career. Friese-Greene was not just an accomplished keyboard player but also a compatible personality, as the internal chemistry of the band was already proving to be more important to Hollis than mere technical prowess. So strong was the rapport between artist and producer, in fact, that the pair swiftly co-wrote two tracks which completed - and indeed made - the LP: "It's My Life" and "Dum Dum Girl". Although this writing partnership has been responsible for every Talk Talk track released since 1984, Friese-Greene chooses to remain officially outside the group, Hollis instead describing him as an "Al Kooper-type figure". Their third album, "The Colour Of Spring" which eventually went gold, was a record of rich textures and rare emotional depth which featured eight brilliant Hollis/Friese-Greene compositions and absolutely no padding., EMI then allowed the group a bigger budget and an extended schedule, and by now their synths had been abandoned in favour of a rich Hammond organ sound courtesy of Steve Winwood, and it was to be another two-and-a-half years before EMI took delivery of "Spirit Of Eden", an album which sent blood-pressure soaring sufficiently at the label for it to be transferred onto Parlophone instead. "Eden" was the first album for which Talk Talk had been given an open budget and schedule, yet although it took a year and a small fortune to record, the results were far from commercial. The six tracks were edited down from many hours of improvisation to form a suite that defies categorisation - the solemn atmospheres and free-form dynamics evoking comparisons as diverse as Miles Davis, Debussy, Neil Young, Delius and Eric Satie. Ultimately, however, it sounds like nobody else, and though to these ears "Eden" is both a bold artistic statement and brilliant music, its dark-night-of-the-soul ambience presented a stern challenge to casual listeners. Mainstream it wasn't, but then chart placings and rotation airplay were the very last considerations for a group whose promotional plan initially included no single, no video and no tour.

Sinead O’ Connor

This lady is just amazing, live performance or studio recorded, quality is the same, she has an iron will, unbendable character and is full of surprises, she lives her musical career as it comes and she is extremely unstable and moody and I just love the musical result, every stage of her life produces an entirely different record.

My favourites are :

The Lion and the cobra, recorded in 1987 Chrysalis records

Universal Mother, recorded in 1994 Ensign records

She is a very controversial artist, incurred many wraths of fellow artists for her rigid point of views, but her fans will forgive and adore her in the way only a fan can do. That left her without a major label deal, and permitted her to pursue her childhood dream, her new cd Sean-Nos Nua is a very soothing record, a collection of Irish folk songs interpreted the Sinead O’Connor way, surely not aimed for the charts or big commercial success. By Vanguard records label, for those interested.

The Cure

This is one hell of a new wave band, dominated its time, and one of their records is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, lyrics are gorgeous, emotions rise and fall like only musicians can bring to a crowd, this is a record to listen when the blues is on to you and you are alone and peaceful and enjoying a good drink.

Disintegration, recorded in 1989 Fiction records ltd

The cure is a band that spans 1976-2000, and this alone is a remarkable feith, it came at a time when they parted with Lol Tolhurst, it’s a mourning album and its grand at that.Usually a soundtrack is written for a movie, in this case the soundtrack is there, it needs a movie to be made for it.

Jeff Buckley

Unfortunately he drowned and left us with almost no records to cherish, he has a remarkable high voice for a man, at first it sounds feminine but once used there is this masculine beauty that shines through.

The 4th track, lilac wine is ……..beautiful

Grace – 1994 – Columbia records

Jeff Buckley describes his music as a "low-down dreamy bit of the psyche. It's part quagmire and part structure. The quagmire's important for things to grow in...do you ever have one of those memories where you think you remember a taste or a feel of something...maybe an object...but the feeling is so bizarre and imperceptible that you just can't quite get a hold of it? It drives you crazy. That's my musical aesthetic...just this imperceptible fleeting memory. The beauty of it now is that I can record it onto a disc or play it live. It's entirely surreal. It's like there's a guard at the gate of your memory and you're not supposed to remember certain things because you can only obtain the full experience by completely going under its power. You can be destroyed or scarred...you don't know...it's like dying."

Emir Kusturica & the no smoking orchestra

Soundtrack of the film “ Black Cat White Cat “–1998 -Universal

This is power born in Sarajevo in the early 80’s, sheer telekinetic power, will make you enjoy life and dance away into the night with atomic energy in you, very powerful music. This is due in my opinion because these people lived in a oppressed country, former Yugoslavia and therefore are optimists too. The movie won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film festival in 1998 and is also highly recommendable.

Twin peaks composed by Angelo Badalamenti and produced by David Lynch

Twin peaks and the 2^nd record Fire walk with me.

This one is especially for the ones who loved the movie Twin Peaks, it may not be the great work I would have liked it was, but it carries and manage to deliver the atmosphere of the movie and the series with unmistakably good accuracy of the mood of the movie theme.Just by listening to it, you relive the movie and therefore it is a recommendable record because it has power to it, power to stir up old memories and awake them enough so that odor and taste even long forgotten of the moment relives. The music in Twin Peaks is a melting pot of non-dietic, distorting, dream-like and romantic melodies, and has been referred to as anything from salacious cocktail to lounge swing.

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I still have plenty to come but these are highly recommendable, should be a gain to anyone’s collection.

For those who found it hard to dig through the entire article here’s a short list:

Food for the starved