Panic Room - Free Download - O Holy Night

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What better way to end the year and celebrate Christmas than with a free mp3 download from the outstanding band Panic Room!  A special Christmas recording of "O Holy Night" can be found via the band's official website at http://www.panicroom.org.uk/home.html 

You can also hear it on the YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q51E2TEtSq0 

You can also download a sampler of their 2010 album "Satellite" via the band's website http://www.panicroom.org.uk/home.html although you should already have treated yourself to a copy!  I expect great things from this band in 2012.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Albums Of The Year 2011

1st Place: THE DEVIL'S BLOOD - THE THOUSANDFOLD EPICENTRE

Album of the year for me.  This one keeps getting better and better.  An epic 74 minutes of state of the art metal.  Gorgeous hooks, melodies and outstanding musicianship.  Features the single "Fire Burning".  See my full review at:http://trisectorman.blogspot.com/2011/11/devils-blood-thousandfold-epicentre.html

2nd Place: VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR - A GROUNDING IN NUMBERS

A beautiful and engrossing album from Hammill, Banton and Evans.  I still miss saxman Jackson, but this is a great album guaranteed to give many hours of listening pleasure.  Features the single "Highly Strung".  Full review at:http://trisectorman.blogspot.com/2011/05/van-der-graaf-generator-grounding-in.html

3rd Place: ESBEN AND THE WITCH - VIOLET CRIES

A real grower and a goth pleasure.  For a debut album, it's astonishing.  Features the singles "Chorea", "Warpath", "Hexagons IV" and "Marching Song".  Read my full review at: http://trisectorman.blogspot.com/2011/04/esben-and-witch-violet-cries.html

Brian Eno - Thursday Afternoon

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I'm so glad I bought a copy of this.  

I've been a fan of Eno since 1972 and those early heady days of Roxy Music.  I remember my brother asking me if there was an LP I'd like for a (Christmas or birthday) present, and I replied that I'd like "No Pussyfooting" by Fripp and Eno.  I think he bought a copy for me in London record shop where it was "filed under Eno".  He was a bit freaked out by the gatefold "mirrored room" sleeve and even more so when he heard the album!  I remember too that "A Collage Of Extracts" from it appeared on the b-side of an early Eno 7" that I still have somewhere - possibly the notorious "Seven Deadly Finns"!  I remember listening to "Pyjamarama" in a record shop in Germany.  I remember the shoddy LP pressing of "Discreet Music" I used to own.  Hard to believe all this was around 40 years ago!

Anyway, back to the disc in question.  It's pretty much all keyboard and synths of course, despite the presence of Daniel Lanois.  Brother Roger Eno is also onboard.  I was recently listening to this piece on YouTube.  I knew I had to buy a copy!  This is one of Eno's gorgeous ambient pieces.  It's just over an hour long, and was released to exploit the then fairly new CD format.  I find it incredibly relaxing and yet musically rewarding at the same time.  I've bought a couple of extra copies for Christmas presents this year!

I prefer this to the more critically acclaimed "Apollo".  If you don't know this piece, I recommend giving it a listen via YouTube or wherever.  If you do know it, chances are you may have forgotten just how good it is.  Time for a refresher! Time for a purchase!

Sankara - Enigma EP CD

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Sankara is a new band featuring ex-The Reasoning keyboard/vocalist Gareth Jones and drummer Vinden Wylde.  Also onboard are two members from defunct outfit Bluehorses (about whom I know very little) - guitarist Jay MacDonald and bassist Rhayn Jooste.

To start with, I was underwhelmed by this first release, a four track EP available from Amazon and as downloads on the band's website http://www.sankara.co.uk/

But what we have here is a real grower.  Four extremely strong songs, superbly played and sung.  Why was I underwhelmed then?  Well, it's the production which is only adequate at best.  I would love to hear this material produced and/or mixed by someone like Bob Clearmountain.  For what we have here is AOR which could be absolutely huge stateside, and maybe over here in the UK too.  I am thinking Journey/Fleetwood Mac levels of popularity.  There is a pop sensibility here entirely beyond the prog roots of the band.  Gareth's voice is really distinctive and has star quality, although I do find it rather strange that his voice is used as backing vocals in addition to lead.  It creates an odd effect where perhaps female backing vocals would complement and enhance Gareth's lead.

Title track "Enigma" is piano-led and has a hypnotic hook.  It's the best song here.  Gareth's vocal is very choirboy like on this.  Rhayn's bass playing is characterful and Jay's guitars range from tasteful to commanding.  I couldn't get this tune out of my head the other day!

Second track "Exalted Star" is an altogether rockier affair.  Naturally, this stars Jay's electric playing and an  interesting solo part.  Chorus is strong and catchy.

Third song is the slower "As They Lay My Body Down".  This makes the most of Gareth's spiritual vocal style and Jay's acoustic playing.

Final track is "Full Flow" where Vinden's drums can be heard most effectively and at times the combination of Gareth's vocal and Jay's guitars reminds me of Led Zeppelin.

You can listen to the whole EP on the band's website.  Downloads are also available for purchase, but take my tip and treat yourself to the CD as the sound quality is  superior - drums, cymbals and vocals sound so much clearer.  Despite the production, I still rate this disc highly and have given it the full five stars as I think I will be playing and enjoying this for many months to come.

The band are playing Cambridge Rock Festival 2012.  A sometime haunt of The Reasoning and Panic Room, of course.  No doubt there will be other chances to catch them.  It's good to be in at the start with this band - I think they will be very popular.

Annie Lennox - A Christmas Cornucopia

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Cornucopia?  Cornucrapia more like!  This is a truly dreadful album.  I am posting this review as a warning just in case you are tempted to buy it while in a festive spirit! Make sure you listen to the samples at Amazon before you take the plunge.  Maybe you too will hate Annie's murdering of beautiful carols such as "The Holly And The Ivy", "In The Bleak Midwinter", "Coventry Carol" and "Il est né le divin enfant".  Annie's singing here is dour and doesn't suit this joyful material.  

Lennox has previous form for this sort of thing.  There was that awful covers album where "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" among others was dumped upon.  Further back, Dusty Springfield fans such as I will never forgive The Tourists and their rockist trashing of "I Only Want To Be With You".

The artwork is rather nice which is the only reason why the album gets as much as one star out of five.  Beware of the "Limited Edition" which has only a little more packaging (but no extra songs) for a lot more money.  There is also a green vinyl edition.  Tasteful!

I wouldn't want you to think I am a Lennox hater.  Some of the Eurythmics stuff was rather good.  I'm thinking particularly of early albums like "In The Garden" and "Sweet Dreams".  But this really is the pits...  

Heaven And Hell - Neon Nights

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A live album from one of the last performances by Heaven And Hell.  Essentially this is Black Sabbath but with Ronnie James Dio (R.I.P.) singing instead of Ozzy.  So we have metal masters Tony Iommi on guitar and Geezer Butler on bass.  Drums are by Vinnie Appice as Bill Ward declined to take part.  Hidden in the wings is Dio's keyboard player Scott Warren.  I always thought it a bit shabby the way Sabbath hid their keyboard players from view, and it's a shame this practice continued in the later band.  Talk about being in denial!

This is a really good performance, and we are lucky to have this as an official release.  There is also a DVD of this show with extra music and interview footage.  Tracks on the CD which didn't appear on their earlier Live from Radio City double are "Time Machine", "Bible Black", "Fear" and "Follow The Tears".  In truth that earlier release was a bit better than this one, perhaps because this one is outdoors.  I have also heard better performances on various bootlegs.  Nevertheless, this is a bit of a gem and an essential purchase for Dio fans.

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

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At last it's here!  The long-awaited new album by The Devil's Blood had been subject to delays (but chaos is good in their world).  I bought a copy of the album at the UK launch show at Camden Underworld.  Another astonishing performance by the band. You could almost hear the sound of jaws dropping as people new to the band watched the show.

Paper ticket courtesy of Dave Pearson - many thanks

What's the album like?  Well, very long!  There's 74 minutes of music here.  Melodic metal with three guitarists and even an orchestra here and there.  Strong songs with hooks and riffs to die for, and featuring the single "Fire Burning".  The final track "Feverdance" is an astonishing 15 minute workout with incredible drumming and incandescent guitars.  I will write more about the individual songs shortly, but you can tell what's coming with titles such as "Die The Death", "Everlasting Saturnalia" and "The Madness Of Serpents"!  As mentioned in an earlier post, you can hear the title track on the band's new website  http://thedevilsblood.com/#/declarations and a FREE mp3 download of it is available at the record company's site at

http://www.van-gbr.de/samples/thedevilsblood_thethousandfoldepicentre.mp3

If I didn't know better, I'd say the free download is a different mix, so it's worth keeping as a supplement to the album, which really is an essential buy.

The CD is available in standard digipack and lavish 10" bound editions.  I bought the latter as it is such a gorgeous item.  The pictures here really don't do it justice.  The illustrations in the booklet are amazing. Vinyl is also available as a 2LP set, again available in standard and lavish versions.

You really do owe it to yourself to hear this.  I think this could be album of the year.

The Stone Roses - Second Coming

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News of the return of The Stone Roses caused me to dig out my copy of their second album.  It's an album I never really took to, and generally has been much maligned.  Listening to it over the last couple of days has made me appreciate it much more than ever before.  OK, it doesn't reach the heady heights of their debut LP, but not many albums do.

There is some really strong material here - the sublime single "Ten Storey Love Song", "Love Spreads", "Breaking Into Heaven" and "Begging You".  I can live without the rockist Americana on "Driving South" and Ian Brown's flat vocals on "Good Times".

Some of this material is quite heavy, as it's very much guitarist John Squire's album. And strangely, a lot of it sounds more at home in 2011 than it did in the mid-'90s.

I think this album might have been more successful with a little judicious editing as some of the songs are overlong.  Maybe one or two of the weaker songs (such as "Straight To The Man") should have been dropped.  I rather like the jokey bonus track which is known as "The Foz" or "Cacophony" but I do feel including it on this album was probably a mistake.  I think a lot of fans were overwhelmed by the sheer volume and variety of material.  Including the bonus track, there are over 70 minutes of music here.

Don't buy this in preference to their debut eponymous album.  But if you have that already, and maybe one of the Silvertone compilations with their early singles on, then this album is worth getting too.

Lou Reed - Rock n Roll Animal / Extended Versions (aka Live)

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Lou Reed's 1974 release "Rock n Roll Animal" is one of the very best live albums ever.  Lou's band at the time featured Prakash John on bass, Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter on guitars, Ray Colcord on keyboards and Pentti Glan on drums.  The very best band he has ever had in his solo career.  Lou of course is a mean guitarist himself and in Hunter/Wagner he found two outstanding players, allowing him to concentrate on singing and fronting the show.  They went on to play for Alice Cooper and their intro to the album, leading into the killer riff of "Sweet Jane" is justifiably celebrated.  RCA has issued an expanded version of the album.  The original LP featured "Intro/Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light / White Heat", "Lady Day" and "Rock'n'Roll".  The expanded edition adds "How Do You Think It Feels" and "Caroline Says I".

What is sometimes forgotten, is that RCA issued a second LP from the same NY Academy of Music concert a few months later.  This was called "Lou Reed Live" and features "Vicious", "Satellite Of Love", "Walk On The Wild Side", "I'm Waiting For The Man", "Oh Jim" and "Sad Song".  This second release is available on CD, but is a lot harder to find.   Partly this is because it is only available stateside and the album is bizarrely renamed as "Extended Versions"!

Not everyone like the "heavy metal" treatment meted out to the VU classics.  I am one of those who loves it.  To be fair, there is a lot more light and dark than that genre would suggest, with a funky break in "Rock'n'Roll" epitomising this.  The show must have been amazing to see, and now we can reconstruct the whole thing using the two CDs here.  The running order is a little jumbled, but the correct order can be found online.

The packaging of the expanded "Rock n Roll Animal" is fantastic, with detailed notes in the booklet.  The packaging for "Extended Versions" is total rubbish.  To make things worse, the former typically retails for a fraction of the latter.  I have put my copies of the CDs in one full depth double CD box, reuniting the two halves of the concert.  Why on earth RCA/BMG haven't done a proper job with the two CDs of material is hard to understand in this age of collectors editions.

STOP PRESS  In another bizarre move "Rock n Roll Animal" has just been re-issued in one of those "Original Album Classics" 5CD boxes.  This is the third 5CD box of Lou Reed albums in the series.  You would have thought it would have been in a box with "Lou Reed Live" (aka "Extended Versions").  But no, it is in a box with "The Bells", "Rock'n'Roll Heart", "Growing Up In Public" and "Street Hassle".  Another missed opportunity...

Shadow Of The Sun - streaming demos

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Shadow Of The Sun is a brand new band formed by Dylan Thompson, former guitarist/vocalist with The Reasoning.  The other members are Matthew Alexander Powell, Lee Woodmass and Rhys Jones (who was also in The Reasoning at some stage apparently).  I don't know how I'd classify them - at this early stage does it matter?  Maybe melodic metal?  I think they show great promise.  You can listen to four demo songs on their website http://www.shadowofthesun.co.uk/ (under Media > Music).  There is a CD of demos available at gigs, and shortly online we are promised. 

CD currently only available at gigs

The band is touring with Heather Findlay (ex-Mostly Autumn, or Mostly Humdrum as I like to call them!) in November - check out www.heatherfindlay.net .  There are a few other gigs in the pipeline too.  I hope to catch them soon.  I'm really excited about this band, it will be good to hear Dylan free from The Reasoning.

Birtwistle - Secret Theatre, Silbury Air

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NMC re-issue artwork

It's quite a sobering thought to realise that I have owned this recording for over twenty years.  Sir Harrison Birtwistle is an avant-garde British composer.  Listen to the YouTube recording sample below if this stuff is new to you.  When I was starting out with classical music, often as not I used to buy on spec.  There was no internet for me in those days, so no downloads, samples or YouTube videos!  Gramophone reviews were a help (and don't start me on how that magazine has declined from essential to lifestyle froth).  So this is one of those CDs I bought on spec and have grown to love.  The performances are top notch, by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Elgar Howarth.

My copy was an expensive import on the Dutch label Etcetera, funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain!  British label NMC has since acquired the rights and re-issued with new artwork, and at a more reasonable price.  NMC is a registered charity with a lot of very interesting material on the label, so I suggest you check their website if you are interested in anything off the beaten track.  Website is at http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/

Original Etcetera label artwork  

Incidentally, for the sharp-eyed, the track timings quoted on the original Etcetera release were wrong...

The Dacoits - The Dacoits

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Wow!  This is a really, really good album.  This is indie rock, with a touch of goth.  The songs are strong with good hooks and gorgeous melodies.  What a shame that the band don't sell copies at their gigs.  Having said that, all is not lost as the CD is available mail order from the band's website at http://www.thedacoits.co.uk/The_Dacoits/The_Dacoits.html and it is extremely cheap at just a fiver plus £1 delivery!  A bargain.  You can listen to the music from the album on the website, too.  It's also on Spotify, Amazon download etc.

My CD arrived promptly.  I eventually found a handwritten message from Carrie Rossiter, the singer, enclosed in the packaging.  A very nice touch indeed, and you can see it in the photos below.

"Gravity" is the track the band are plugging at the moment, although it's not on the album!  Anyway, here is the video for it:

I'd say it was pretty representative of the album, despite not being on it!  Favourite album tracks of mine are "Woman On The Wheel", "Holy Man" (a sort of goth "Son Of A Preacher Man") and the amusingly titled "Black Dog".

As mentioned above, I recently saw my first gig by the band.  It was a bit anarchic with all the fellas dressed in drag.  Singer Carrie  carried on regardless.  I think this was probably a one-off and would expect the band to be a lot tighter and better dressed normally!

This band will go far - far beyond their modest beginnings on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire border.

The Reasoning - Awakening / Dark Angel

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I really rate these first two albums by The Reasoning.  "Awakening" is an astonishingly confident debut.  The band at this stage boasted three vocalists, the rather plain sounding Rachel Cohen (nee Jones, ex-Karnataka), guitarist Dylan Thompson and keyboard player Gareth Jones.  The three vocalists blended sublimely on some very strong material.  Unfortunately the powerhouse six-piece line-up did not last.  Dylan and Gareth have now moved on, and the band is poorer for it.  In fact, of the original six-piece only Rachel and her husband Matthew, the bassist, remain.

"Awakening" features the outstanding title track, "Shadows Of The Mind", the Tolkien-esque "Chasing Rainbows", "Aching Hunger" and "Sacred Shape".

"Dark Angel" is the second album. It's not as strong as the first one, but it is very good despite that.  Standout track here is "Call Me God?" which with the departure of the male vocalists we are unlikely to ever hear again, I guess.  There was a double disc edition with a DVD featuring the "Making Of" documentary and priceless live footage of the early three vocalist line-up.

Availability of these early releases is patchy, so get them while you can.

I really hope The Reasoning produce some top notch material in the future with their new 5-piece line-up. You can find out about the band at their website http://www.thereasoning.com/home.php  I'm not sure what has happened to Gareth Jones, but Dylan Thompson has launched a new band Shadow Of The Sun, of which more may be found here.

Stop Press:  Gareth Jones has been in touch, as you can see from the comments below.  He has launched a new band along with fellow Reasoning refugee, Vinden Wylde.  The band is Sankara, and you can find my review of their first CD release here.

Philip Glass - Music In Twelve Parts (3 CDs)

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It's hard to know how to rate this music. I've know it since the 1970s when radio DJ Alan Freeman played a snippet from a vinyl LP on his Saturday rock show! The LP was on Virgin's pioneering and cheapo Caroline label. I bought a copy as it was fascinating stuff - I'd never heard anything like it. That LP featured only the first two parts of the work, and is my favourite version of these pieces. This Nonesuch CD set features all twelve parts spread over more than three hours. The music is densely repetitive, at times irritating and at others so fascinating. It's really love it or hate it stuff. You definitely have to be in the mood for it. I'm glad I bought this set, although truth told, it only gets listened to infrequently.


This set comes in a rather superfluous card slipcase with the picture of Philip Glass shown above. The same picture features in the lush booklet that accompanies the set. This set seems to be quite expensive at the moment, so you might be better off buying the Nonesuch Retrospective 10 CD box which features a couple of parts from this and is a rather better buy at only a fraction more.

The Caroline Records release of Parts 1 & 2

Live in The Netherlands!

Live in Brighton!

Steve Reich - Phases (5 CDs)

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I am adding some classical content to this blog, mainly because it seemed like a fun idea.  I have hundreds of classical CDs, many of which have since been re-issued in cheap boxsets.  Frankly, I have enough classical CDs to last me a lifetime.  So reviewing some of them here might stimulate my interest in my existing collection, rather than continually lusting after new releases.

This 5 CD boxset is available at a very reasonable price.  I used to own a CD of "Different Trains"/"Electric Counterpoint" - the same recordings as featured here.  I sold it a few years ago on Amazon Marketplace.  Truth told, I don't like listening to "Different Trains" as the subject matter is so heavy.  So it was great to get this set which features the same recording of "Electric Counterpoint" as played by Pat Metheney, and so many other treasures.  Particular favourites of mine at the moment are "Music For 18 Musicians", "Tehillim" and "The Desert Music".  However, my favourites do change and it's all good stuff here in impeccable performances, many featuring the composer himself.

Presentation is good, too.  A slipcase holds 5 digipacks and a nice booklet of photos, lyrics, an essay and recording details.

If you don't know Reich at all his music is heavily repetitive and hypnotic.  There is plenty to hear on YouTube such as:

Treat yourself to this set as it is a supreme bargain.