Thursday 16th December: Given the time span between attending the gig and actually getting around to blogging about it, together with my sometimes over-reliance on memory (rather than taking notes), this will be a somewhat sparser entry than usual.
I had thought that I had seen my last gig of 2010 but then discovered that two of my favourite local acts, along with one I hadn't seen before, were performing at the Basement tonight (or, rather, a month ago) so, with the other guys unavailable, I set out for one last solo attendance before the end of the year.
Sadly, shortly before the start of the evening, GT Turbo let the other acts know that he was no longer going to make it. Shame as regular readers will know that I'm a big fan.
I had never seem Sam Forrest before tonight but I had heard good things about his work with Nine Black Alps and knew that he was producer on my favourite album of 2010 (Boss Caine's The Ship That Sailed - if you haven't bought it already, why not???) Unusually for a man and guitar act Sam plays electric guitar but there was something different about how he was playing it that I couldn't quite put my finger on. The best way I could describe it would be that he played it as if it were acoustic. It was a low-key performance with little audience interaction and if I heard any song titles, I have since forgotten them. Somehow, Sam's voice didn't quite fit his playing, which detracted a little from the performance for me. That's not to say it was a bad performance, though, just that it wasn't what I was used to. It was a short set, but it was good enough to tempt me to buy a copy of Sam's latest album, No Imagination, which I have had a chance to listen to and, as I mentioned in my CD roundup, ended up bubbling just outside my top five of the year.
Hazzard County don't get together as often as they used to (which, to be fair, was weekly for quite a long time) but are always worth watching. Tonight, Dave, Simon, Chris and the one whose name I can never remember were joined by Sam Forrest, who played bass while the rest of them rotated around the remaining instruments and vocals, playing the usual mix of country rock songs. As usual the set included a number of songs I recognised but couldn't remember who originally performed them. Occasionally, the band helped out by introducing songs by the likes of Texas Tornados, J.J. Cale and Ryan Adams. They also performed Chris's own Luckiest Man Alive and favourites of mine such as Rock Me Mama, Crickle Creek and The Weight. (The last two originally by The Band.) As usual, it was a foot-stomping, sing-along performance of great songs and excellent musicianship and another entertaining evening. Sadly, chatting with Simon after the gig, it seems that this this could be the last reunion for quite some time as all the current members are busy with other projects.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Sunday, 2 January 2011
2010 In Review - Part 2, The CDs
Sunday 2nd January: I started 2010 with the idea that I might reach a total of six hundred CDs and during the first few months seemed to be well on target, thanks in large part to cheap on-line offers and much-anticipated releases from some favourite artists. However, as the year went on, financial constraints and a lack of interesting releases (together with a smaller than normal number of CDs as birthday and Christmas presents) meant that I eventually fell a few short. I can confidently predict that I will reach the milestone this year - it's now that close.
Overall, I added sixty-four CDs to my collection, including one single and one EP. Of those, just thirty-three were released during 2010. Stripping that down even further, the single was released this year and a further ten were compilation albums given away free with magazines (nine from Classic Rock Presents Prog and one from the inaugural issue of Classic Rock Presents A.O.R.). So, that just leaves twenty-two from which to pick my top five of 2010.
Of the non-2010 albums I bought, favourites would have to be Marillion's Misplaced Childhood with which, along with three other of their albums, I finally exorcised my dismissal of them as Genesis wannabes. Before this year, I had heard of The Reasoning, but not heard them. Now I have all four of their albums and it is the first, Dark Angel, which I think is the best - unfortunately their two releases this year weren't, in my opinion, as good as the previous two, although the stripped down Acoustically Speaking did give us some interesting interpretations of some of their songs. Another couple of favourites were Uriah Heap's Demons and Wizards and Mandalaband's B.C. Ancestors - the latter being the band's third release in the short span of nearly thirty-five years, albeit with their third line-up. If I had bought this last year rather than this, there's a good chance it would have made my top five of 2009.
The previous two Mandalaband albums were reissued in one package this year, sadly without a reproduction of the illustrated insert from the original vinyl release of The Eye Of Wendor, and it is this package which I would choose as my reissue of the year.
For me, the biggest disappointment of the year was Meatloaf's latest, Hang Cool Teddy Bear. It's almost a given that Meatloaf is at his best when teamed with the writing of Jim Steinman but this album, although not completely bad, didn't do as much for me as any of his previous releases and there's just no need for Beastie Boy style (c)rap on a Meatloaf album.
There are a few albums from the past year which are just bubbling under my top five and honourable mentions go to the self-titled debut from the superb Lost From Atlas, Hope & Social's April (which isn't quite as good as the previous album) and No Imagination from York's own Sam Forrest.
And so to the top five....
In fifth place comes Omega, the second release from the reformed original line-up of Asia. The previous release (Phoenix, 2008) may have been a bit of a disappointment to some, but Omega is, perhaps, the best release since Alpha back in 1982. Perhaps a bit too "pop" to be classed exclusively as prog but nonetheless a great album which includes some really good songs, including the brilliant Holy War - how many other songs have you heard which include the word "trebuchet" and which rhyme "Agincourt" With "Conquistador"?
Fourth place goes to Mostly Autumn's Go Well Diamond Heart. Not only have the band survived the resignation of Heather Findlay as female lead, promoting Livvy Sparnenn from backing to lead vocals, but they have also produced their best album for some time. While I may have been dubious about Livvy's live performance, the album really shows how good her vocals can be. Being a big fan of the band, I bought the two-CD special edition of the album and, being honest, I'm not sure the later-released single CD version would have made the top five as the extra disc includes some of the best songs, including the superb Ice, which was a contender for my song of the year. (More on that later...)
In third place comes the first non-prog album. The Union's self-titled first release is a blues-soaked rock album which drew me in from the first listen (probably helped by the fact that I'd just seen them perform most of it live). The album contains a lovely mix of songs - the sublime ballad Lillies and the niceness of This Time Next Year are counterpointed by Saviour and the Deep South tinged Holy Roller, while Easy Street could be the anthem for the current state of our country. A really good debut album from some very experienced musicians.
I head back to prog-land for my second favourite. Karnataka's The Gathering Light is one of the most joyous progressive rock albums I have ever heard, with some great vocals from Lisa Fury and fantastic musical passages. For a while it was heading to be my favourite release of 2010. Sadly the band seemed to implode shortly after the album was released, with only two of the line-up remaining and, I believe, auditions continuing to replace those that left. This doesn't (and shouldn't) detract from the release itself, but does make me wonder how many times Ian Jones can reform the band.
So, what finally knocked Kanataka off the top spot? A little album called The Ship That Sailed by York collective Boss Caine. With songs written by G.T. Turbo/Dan Lucas, over a period of years, this is an intensely personal album which contains more talent than an entire season of reality T.V. shows. There really isn't a duff song on this (although, as I said in my original review, one does outstay its welcome just a little bit) despite it not including most of my live favourites. The lyrics are thoughtful and thought-provoking - for example, the brilliant Leaving Victoria is probably not about what you imagine it to be - and the music is excellent. To quote my own review, this is a "beautifully crafted album... Powerful, raw, emotional, simple (and, paradoxically, complex) superb and highly recommended."
Boss Caine also released my song of the year. Towards the end of the year, they (he?) released a split album with Mark Wynn. The final song on the Boss Caine "side" is The Life In Your Years. It is, in keeping with other songs written by Lucas, based on experience and heartfelt. In this case, it's a celebration of friends and of the life Lucas was living at the time he wrote it while, at the same time, an explanation to his family of why he lived life the way he did. In no way apologetic for the things his mother worried about, it is the very epitome of bitter-sweet. A wonderful song from a truly exceptional song-writer.
Overall, I added sixty-four CDs to my collection, including one single and one EP. Of those, just thirty-three were released during 2010. Stripping that down even further, the single was released this year and a further ten were compilation albums given away free with magazines (nine from Classic Rock Presents Prog and one from the inaugural issue of Classic Rock Presents A.O.R.). So, that just leaves twenty-two from which to pick my top five of 2010.
Of the non-2010 albums I bought, favourites would have to be Marillion's Misplaced Childhood with which, along with three other of their albums, I finally exorcised my dismissal of them as Genesis wannabes. Before this year, I had heard of The Reasoning, but not heard them. Now I have all four of their albums and it is the first, Dark Angel, which I think is the best - unfortunately their two releases this year weren't, in my opinion, as good as the previous two, although the stripped down Acoustically Speaking did give us some interesting interpretations of some of their songs. Another couple of favourites were Uriah Heap's Demons and Wizards and Mandalaband's B.C. Ancestors - the latter being the band's third release in the short span of nearly thirty-five years, albeit with their third line-up. If I had bought this last year rather than this, there's a good chance it would have made my top five of 2009.
The previous two Mandalaband albums were reissued in one package this year, sadly without a reproduction of the illustrated insert from the original vinyl release of The Eye Of Wendor, and it is this package which I would choose as my reissue of the year.
For me, the biggest disappointment of the year was Meatloaf's latest, Hang Cool Teddy Bear. It's almost a given that Meatloaf is at his best when teamed with the writing of Jim Steinman but this album, although not completely bad, didn't do as much for me as any of his previous releases and there's just no need for Beastie Boy style (c)rap on a Meatloaf album.
There are a few albums from the past year which are just bubbling under my top five and honourable mentions go to the self-titled debut from the superb Lost From Atlas, Hope & Social's April (which isn't quite as good as the previous album) and No Imagination from York's own Sam Forrest.
And so to the top five....
In fifth place comes Omega, the second release from the reformed original line-up of Asia. The previous release (Phoenix, 2008) may have been a bit of a disappointment to some, but Omega is, perhaps, the best release since Alpha back in 1982. Perhaps a bit too "pop" to be classed exclusively as prog but nonetheless a great album which includes some really good songs, including the brilliant Holy War - how many other songs have you heard which include the word "trebuchet" and which rhyme "Agincourt" With "Conquistador"?
Fourth place goes to Mostly Autumn's Go Well Diamond Heart. Not only have the band survived the resignation of Heather Findlay as female lead, promoting Livvy Sparnenn from backing to lead vocals, but they have also produced their best album for some time. While I may have been dubious about Livvy's live performance, the album really shows how good her vocals can be. Being a big fan of the band, I bought the two-CD special edition of the album and, being honest, I'm not sure the later-released single CD version would have made the top five as the extra disc includes some of the best songs, including the superb Ice, which was a contender for my song of the year. (More on that later...)
In third place comes the first non-prog album. The Union's self-titled first release is a blues-soaked rock album which drew me in from the first listen (probably helped by the fact that I'd just seen them perform most of it live). The album contains a lovely mix of songs - the sublime ballad Lillies and the niceness of This Time Next Year are counterpointed by Saviour and the Deep South tinged Holy Roller, while Easy Street could be the anthem for the current state of our country. A really good debut album from some very experienced musicians.
I head back to prog-land for my second favourite. Karnataka's The Gathering Light is one of the most joyous progressive rock albums I have ever heard, with some great vocals from Lisa Fury and fantastic musical passages. For a while it was heading to be my favourite release of 2010. Sadly the band seemed to implode shortly after the album was released, with only two of the line-up remaining and, I believe, auditions continuing to replace those that left. This doesn't (and shouldn't) detract from the release itself, but does make me wonder how many times Ian Jones can reform the band.
So, what finally knocked Kanataka off the top spot? A little album called The Ship That Sailed by York collective Boss Caine. With songs written by G.T. Turbo/Dan Lucas, over a period of years, this is an intensely personal album which contains more talent than an entire season of reality T.V. shows. There really isn't a duff song on this (although, as I said in my original review, one does outstay its welcome just a little bit) despite it not including most of my live favourites. The lyrics are thoughtful and thought-provoking - for example, the brilliant Leaving Victoria is probably not about what you imagine it to be - and the music is excellent. To quote my own review, this is a "beautifully crafted album... Powerful, raw, emotional, simple (and, paradoxically, complex) superb and highly recommended."
Boss Caine also released my song of the year. Towards the end of the year, they (he?) released a split album with Mark Wynn. The final song on the Boss Caine "side" is The Life In Your Years. It is, in keeping with other songs written by Lucas, based on experience and heartfelt. In this case, it's a celebration of friends and of the life Lucas was living at the time he wrote it while, at the same time, an explanation to his family of why he lived life the way he did. In no way apologetic for the things his mother worried about, it is the very epitome of bitter-sweet. A wonderful song from a truly exceptional song-writer.
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
2010 In Review - Part 1, The Books
Wednesday 29th December: I didn't get round to writing about my year of reading last year so I'm going to get it out of the way first this time.
As most people who know me are aware, I have had a huge "to read" pile of novels, biographies and short story collections for some time now and, therefore, rarely buy new books of those sorts, relying on birthday and Christmas presents to help me complete series that I have already started. That means that I can't have a favourite book published in he last year and the following is limited to what I read in 2010, whenever it was published.
In the last year, I finished thirty-five books, with a final one expected to be completed before the end of the year. I also received eighteen, meaning that the pile should have reduced to ninety-three by the start of 2011. As usual, most of my reading has been science-fiction or fantasy (or at least related to the genre) with only a small-press history of female comic characters - the excellent, if somewhat fannish, Supergirls, by Mike Madrid - being even slightly removed.
Getting the disappointments out of the way first, I have to mention Kate Elliott's Crown Of Stars saga, an ambitious seven volume fantasy series which I found very dense and lacking in action, with a cast of characters that you needed a notebook and family tree to keep track of. Consequently, I seemed to take forever to read it and, if reading becomes a chore, it's obviously not enjoyable. My biggest disappointment, however, was Shelters Of Stone (2002) - the fifth volume of Jean M. Auel's prehistoric Earth's Children saga (in which lead character Ayla seems to invent everything from the domestication of animals to sex). It's been a while since I read the fourth volume (Plains Of Passage, 1990) and the huge gap in publication may have contributed to the fact that all that seemed to happen in this volume was that Ayla and Jondalar finally arrived back at the latter's home cave and reiterated everything that had gone before, before setting up the final volume, due next year.
In terms of fantasy, I'm not going to choose Neil Gaiman's Stardust as my favourite of the year, primarily because I have read it before, albeit in a different format (it was originally published as four "comics" and later collected as a trade paperback, both released by DC Comics). Nor am I going to choose the solid Soldier's Son trilogy by Robin Hobb, which I enjoyed immensely, but only because I read a rare single-volume fantasy by somebody much less prolific, which was superb. War Of The Flowers by Tad Williams may not be completely original but it has enough new ideas in it to be a refreshing read. Part urban fantasy, part "fish out of water" story and part Faerie tale, it provided a new take on the world of the Fey. Exciting in places, scary in others and, it has to be said, obvious in some, it did what a good book should do - kept me entertained (and, at times, amused) for the whole read and I would recommend it to anybody with even the slightest interest in fantasy.
Science fiction has been going through a bit of a boom period recently and I am now catching up with some best reviewed books of the last few years, as well as some older ones. I finished reading my stack of SF Masterworks some time in 2009, so I didn't read any of the so-called classics this year. Perhaps the biggest surprise was Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap cycle, which I completed after reading the first, rather slimmer, volume some time ago. Donaldson has a reputation, I believe, for unlikeable characters and the first volume put me off reading the rest a bit as it contained both the physical and mental rape of one main character by another. So, when I finally got hold of the remaining volumes, it was with some trepidation that I started reading them. Unfortunately, there was still a lot of nastiness but, as the story went on, the target character grew past it and I became somewhat inured to it (perhaps a sign of good writing or perhaps a sign of numbness, I'm not certain) and from struggling through volumes two and three, by the time I'd finished all five, I realised I'd read a cracking if flawed space opera. Indeed, it's space opera that dominates my favourites of the year. Peter F. Hamilton is one of the new British masters of the genre and the first part of his Commonwealth duology, Pandora's Star was almost a sure thing for my book of the year. However, because I don't like selecting parts of a series as my favourite - it's the whole or nothing - it was let down by the second volume, Judas Unchained, which, although containing more action, was more of a struggle to get through, again due to the number of characters and the factions they represented. Hamilton also seemed to have forgotten that having distinctive names helps those of us with limited thinking power to keep track - I mean, three characters called Ozzie, Orion and Oscar... come on! Also, towards the end, the action got a wee bit too complicated and I struggled to keep up with who was wear, fighting with whom and for what. So, my favourite SF novel goes to Matter, the 2008 entry in Iain M. Banks' Culture series. I'm not a huge Banks fan and have found some of his Culture stories frankly dull. This one, however, was brilliant in its weaving together of two stories which eventually came together as one with an ending that was unforeseen and yet, in hindsight, extremely obvious.
My overall favourite book of the year, though, is one I haven't even read yet....
I'm a sucker for coffee-table style books on various subjects, especially the history of American comics. This year was DC Comics 75th anniversary and Taschen published the massive (so big it comes in its own carrying case and would probably cause our coffee table to collapse) 75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking in celebration. With text by Paul Levitz, who has been associated with DC for over 35 years, this is a treasure trove of rare art and photos from the entire history of the company. My copy of the book arrived today and I spent most of the afternoon browsing through it and trying to stop the drool from falling onto it. It's a lovely thing to look at and I'm sure that the text will live up to expectations. Well worth the price. (Don't ask...)
As most people who know me are aware, I have had a huge "to read" pile of novels, biographies and short story collections for some time now and, therefore, rarely buy new books of those sorts, relying on birthday and Christmas presents to help me complete series that I have already started. That means that I can't have a favourite book published in he last year and the following is limited to what I read in 2010, whenever it was published.
In the last year, I finished thirty-five books, with a final one expected to be completed before the end of the year. I also received eighteen, meaning that the pile should have reduced to ninety-three by the start of 2011. As usual, most of my reading has been science-fiction or fantasy (or at least related to the genre) with only a small-press history of female comic characters - the excellent, if somewhat fannish, Supergirls, by Mike Madrid - being even slightly removed.
Getting the disappointments out of the way first, I have to mention Kate Elliott's Crown Of Stars saga, an ambitious seven volume fantasy series which I found very dense and lacking in action, with a cast of characters that you needed a notebook and family tree to keep track of. Consequently, I seemed to take forever to read it and, if reading becomes a chore, it's obviously not enjoyable. My biggest disappointment, however, was Shelters Of Stone (2002) - the fifth volume of Jean M. Auel's prehistoric Earth's Children saga (in which lead character Ayla seems to invent everything from the domestication of animals to sex). It's been a while since I read the fourth volume (Plains Of Passage, 1990) and the huge gap in publication may have contributed to the fact that all that seemed to happen in this volume was that Ayla and Jondalar finally arrived back at the latter's home cave and reiterated everything that had gone before, before setting up the final volume, due next year.
In terms of fantasy, I'm not going to choose Neil Gaiman's Stardust as my favourite of the year, primarily because I have read it before, albeit in a different format (it was originally published as four "comics" and later collected as a trade paperback, both released by DC Comics). Nor am I going to choose the solid Soldier's Son trilogy by Robin Hobb, which I enjoyed immensely, but only because I read a rare single-volume fantasy by somebody much less prolific, which was superb. War Of The Flowers by Tad Williams may not be completely original but it has enough new ideas in it to be a refreshing read. Part urban fantasy, part "fish out of water" story and part Faerie tale, it provided a new take on the world of the Fey. Exciting in places, scary in others and, it has to be said, obvious in some, it did what a good book should do - kept me entertained (and, at times, amused) for the whole read and I would recommend it to anybody with even the slightest interest in fantasy.
Science fiction has been going through a bit of a boom period recently and I am now catching up with some best reviewed books of the last few years, as well as some older ones. I finished reading my stack of SF Masterworks some time in 2009, so I didn't read any of the so-called classics this year. Perhaps the biggest surprise was Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap cycle, which I completed after reading the first, rather slimmer, volume some time ago. Donaldson has a reputation, I believe, for unlikeable characters and the first volume put me off reading the rest a bit as it contained both the physical and mental rape of one main character by another. So, when I finally got hold of the remaining volumes, it was with some trepidation that I started reading them. Unfortunately, there was still a lot of nastiness but, as the story went on, the target character grew past it and I became somewhat inured to it (perhaps a sign of good writing or perhaps a sign of numbness, I'm not certain) and from struggling through volumes two and three, by the time I'd finished all five, I realised I'd read a cracking if flawed space opera. Indeed, it's space opera that dominates my favourites of the year. Peter F. Hamilton is one of the new British masters of the genre and the first part of his Commonwealth duology, Pandora's Star was almost a sure thing for my book of the year. However, because I don't like selecting parts of a series as my favourite - it's the whole or nothing - it was let down by the second volume, Judas Unchained, which, although containing more action, was more of a struggle to get through, again due to the number of characters and the factions they represented. Hamilton also seemed to have forgotten that having distinctive names helps those of us with limited thinking power to keep track - I mean, three characters called Ozzie, Orion and Oscar... come on! Also, towards the end, the action got a wee bit too complicated and I struggled to keep up with who was wear, fighting with whom and for what. So, my favourite SF novel goes to Matter, the 2008 entry in Iain M. Banks' Culture series. I'm not a huge Banks fan and have found some of his Culture stories frankly dull. This one, however, was brilliant in its weaving together of two stories which eventually came together as one with an ending that was unforeseen and yet, in hindsight, extremely obvious.
My overall favourite book of the year, though, is one I haven't even read yet....
I'm a sucker for coffee-table style books on various subjects, especially the history of American comics. This year was DC Comics 75th anniversary and Taschen published the massive (so big it comes in its own carrying case and would probably cause our coffee table to collapse) 75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking in celebration. With text by Paul Levitz, who has been associated with DC for over 35 years, this is a treasure trove of rare art and photos from the entire history of the company. My copy of the book arrived today and I spent most of the afternoon browsing through it and trying to stop the drool from falling onto it. It's a lovely thing to look at and I'm sure that the text will live up to expectations. Well worth the price. (Don't ask...)
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