Is my top 10 still accurate?

Way back in 2009 I posted a list of my top 10 albums (plus a few more). I'm not quite sure what drew me back to this post but I was curious to know whether I still regarded these as my top 10. Of the 10 listed, I think I have played them all at least once in the past few months with the exception of Unknown Pleasures, so I'd have to say that the list is still a fair reflection of my long term musical tastes. Although I'm playing my more recent CD additions to death, they haven't yet qualified for the top 10, but I suspect The Incredible String Band could make the 'worthy contenders' list. If you're wondering how I could leap from my top 10 to the Incredible String Band, then take a look at this excellent book by Rob Young which has inspired me to diversify into the folk genre.

From my top 10, probably the album I've played the most would be Wire's debut album, Pink Flag. If you've never heard this then I urge you to give it a listen ... plenty of copies here on Amazon, along with their 2nd and 3rd albums, Chairs Missing and 154.

The (fantastic) Mr Fox - Join Us In Our Game

It's taken me a while but I've now finished Rob Young's excellent Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music. Throughout my reading of the book I tracked down a lot of the albums by the artists covered, and listed in the discography. It's hard to pick a favourite as it changes almost daily at the moment. This week I've been listening to Mr Fox, a short-lived psych-folk band featuring, amongst others, Bob and Carole Pegg, who made just 2 albums, Mr Fox in 1970, and Gypsy in 1971. The release I managed to track down however was a single CD featuring tracks from both of these albums called Join Us In Our Game. If you've not heard this band before then I urge you to do so ... and also to persevere with them as it took me a couple of listens before their true magic revealed itself. Standout tracks for me are Joinn Us In Our Game, The Hanged Man, and The House Carpenter, the latter which is more drenched in psychedelia than folk. Fantastic Mr Fox indeed.

Theme Thursday - Space

As regular readers will know, I usually find a vintage postcard or vintage magazine to fit in with Theme Thursday, but occasionally I do depart and dig through my music collection. This week's theme of 'space' has given me another such opportunity. This is a wonderful album from Hawkwind from the early 1970's, and fits this week's theme well I think.

And of course there's also my In Search of Space blog, about a different kind of space.

Hawkwind - In Search of Space

More records and CDs on my web site

Theme Thursday - Turn

Struggling to submit something from my vintage postcard collection to Theme Thursday, this week I dipped into my CD collection instead to find a suitable offering for the theme. This is probably not may favourite Byrds album (that honour would probably go to Younger Than Yesterday or perhaps The Notorious Byrd Brothers) but this is still a great album.

The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn!

Check out my web site for various CDs and records for sale

Bert Jansch - Birthday Blues / Rosemary Lane

As I mention in my In Search of Space blog, I have managed to track sown some of the great music covered in the Rob Young's excellent book, Electric Eden. Of the ones I've listened to the most I would have to say that Bert Jansch is probably hitting the spot the most at he moment. I was fortunate enough to pick up a compilation featuring 2 albums on 1 CD. The albums are 'Birthday Blues' from 1968, and 'Rosemary Lane' from 1971. Being recorded 3 years apart I did not at first think they were an obvious pairing, the earlier one being more bluesy and featuring exclusively Jansch written songs, the latter being more folk oriented and featuring several traditional ballads.

A few listens later however, they do seem to fit together quite well and show perhaps a natural progression towards a more folk style. Standout tracks would have to be 'A Woman Like You' and 'Birthday Blues'.

In second place in my latest listening treats is my first venture into the music of The Incredible String Band, and their album 'Wee Tam'. For some reason I had always previously considered these lot as some sort of eccentric, novelty band (not sure why) but this album is a masterpiece, blending folk and psychedelic sounds.

Loads of records and CDs for sale on my web site

Getting back to my folk and psychedelic roots

Another month has flown by and I've yet again not updated this blog. I have of course been 'musically active' but just not found the time to blog about it. Probably the biggest influence on my musical listenings over the past few weeks has been an excellent book by Rob Young called 'Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music'. From this I've 'discovered' fantastic artists such as Vashti Bunyan, and increased my awareness of groups like The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Donovan. Whilst these are all British bands, when typing these into lastfm I not only heard more British bands of the same ilk, but also groups like Country Joe and the Fish who up until now I'd never really given much attention before. So, my musical journey continues by once again going backwards. It does concern me slightly that there are some great new bands that I should be listening to, but for now my feet are staying firmly in the folk and psychedelic past.

Henry Cow

The upside of lastfm is that I can discover new music daily ... the downside is that I have nowhere near enough time to listen to it all. Recent discoveries include a genre of music completely new to me called Zeuhl (basically late 60's/early 70's French avant garde), Art Zoyd, Henry Cow, Egg, and Giles, Giles and Fripp. I was very pleased to discover the latter as I knew Robert Fripp had been in a band before King Crimson but had never heard any of the material. So this album is definitely one to track down, and also the King Crimson back catalogue, which I have only on vinyl and haven't listened to for years ... so a bit of a prog rock/avant garde revival coming to an iPod near me soon.

By way of contrast I've also been re-discovering US indie/lo-fi material recently, particularly Matthew Sweet, Preston School of Industry, Tobin Sprout, and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. Some of these bands are new to me whereas others are those I listened to at the time but had long forgotten.

And having had my apetite for live music reignited when I saw The Damned a few weeks ago, I'm off to see Public Image later this month, and also Billy Bragg and the Doves.