Yet Another Self-Indulgent "Best of 1989" List
Larry Spence
If you've gotten this far, consider hitting "n" now....
OK, you asked for it (sort of). Here, in no particular order, is my highly
opinionated list. Format is
Artist or group : Title [extra info]
Especially great stuff is starred (*).
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(*) Peter Gabriel: Passion
(*) Todd Rundgren: Nearly Human
(*) Bill Nelson: The Strangest Things, A Collection of Recordings 1979-1989
[singles, b-sides, outtakes]
(*) King Crimson: Red [reissue];
Starless and Bible Black [reissue]
(*) Harold Budd: The Serpent (In Quicksilver) / Abandoned Cities [reissue]
(*) Butthole Surfers: Widowermaker EP
(*) Bill Frisell: Before We Were Born
(*) Birdsongs of the Mesozoic: Faultline
(*) The Golden Palominos: A dead horse
(*) Jimi Hendrix: On the Killing Floor [bootleg, live '69]
(*) Steve Reich: Different Trains / Electric Counterpoint
(*) Erik Satie: Piano Works [Pascal Roge]
Ed Mann: Get Up
Robert Musso: Absolute Music
Various Artists: Live at the Knitting Factory, New York City, Volumes 1 & 2
Diamanda Galas: The Litanies of Satan / Wild Women With Steak-Knives [reissue];
The Divine Punishment / Saint of the Pit [reissue]
Steve Morse: High Tension Wires
Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop with Terry Bozzio and Tony Hymas
Bootstrappers
Jean-Luc Ponty: Storytelling
Brian Eno: Ambient 1 - Music For Airports [reissue];
Ambient 4 - On Land [reissue];
Another Green World [reissue]
King Crimson: Larks' Tongues in Aspic [reissue]
Allan Holdsworth: Secrets
Pere Ubu: One Man Drives While The Other Man Screams;
Dub Housing [reissue]
Big Audio Dynamite: Megatop Phoenix
Jimi Hendrix: Live and Unreleased [outtakes & etc.]
Pink Floyd: Caught in the Crossfire [bootleg, live '77 & '71]
Rolling Stones: A Beggars Opera [bootleg, live '66 - '68]
Arditti String Quartet: Arditti [various composers]
Terry Riley / Kronos Quartet: Salome Dances for Peace
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Among the many 1989 releases I haven't heard yet, but which I suspect
could have made the list (preconceptions? what preconceptions?!?) are:
Henry Kaiser - Serge Kuryokhin (sp?): Popular Science (has anyone heard this?)
John Zorn: Spy vs. Spy (I'll be listening to this in about 20 minutes)
Bill Nelson: Simplex (I've only heard one track from this so far)
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Among the disappointments were:
Frank Zappa: You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Volume 3
Kate Bush: The Sensual World
Laurie Anderson: Strange Angels
These might be recommended to hard-core fans (like myself) with a "caveat
emptor" or three. The Laurie Anderson isn't as disappointing as the Zappa
and Kate.
Question and/or comments and/or flames are welcome...
--
Larry Spence
larry@csccat
...{texbell,texsun,attctc}!csccat!larry
Willard Robinson
Larrys best of '89 includes:
> Pink Floyd: Caught in the Crossfire [bootleg, live '77 & '71]
So how about posting a review - I've seen it but haven't heard it (I'm
really not into buying a boot cd for $25 unless it is of very good sound
quality.
will decwrl!islnds.dec.com!robinson
'I was up above it/now I'm down in it'
tho...@bucsb.uucp
>Yes, folks, it's time for Yet Another Self-Indulgent "Best of 1989" List!
I will try to be a little more self-indulgent......:-)
In some kind of order.....
Peter Gabriel - Passion
Daniel Lanois - Acadie
Capercaillie - Sidewaulk (is this 89??)
Nanci Griffith - Storms
The Innocence Mission - The Innocence Mission
Pete Townsend - The Iron Man
10,000 Maniacs - Blind Man's Zoo
Kate Bush - The Sensual World
Clannad - Pastpresent
Shawn Colvin - I forgot the title because I am senile. (what a title heh?)
--tom
Ralph Brandi
>Among the many 1989 releases I haven't heard yet, but which I suspect
>could have made the list (preconceptions? what preconceptions?!?) are:
>Henry Kaiser - Serge Kuryokhin (sp?): Popular Science (has anyone heard this?)
Yes. I was slightly disappointed, but only because it seems to be
more Henry than Sergei. That said, they're both fantastic, and I'll
take as much as I can get from either one. But you can definitely
tell what pieces come from Sergei, which one's are Henry's, and
which ones are collaborations. Not enough of Sergei's madcap
keyboards, but still very satisfying. Kaiser's liner notes mention
that you may want to play the album piecemeal on random play, since
it may be a little overwhelming in one whole piece.
Anybody got a Kuriokhin discography out there? I've got one Popular
Mechanics album on Leo Records recorded somewhere other than
Leningrad with three other musicians. It's not anything like the
other music I've heard from him. The man is incredible.
--
Ralph Brandi ra...@lzfme.att.com att!lzfme!ralph
Work flows toward the competent until they are submerged.
Larry Spence
...and someone asked for more info. For a bootleg, this is very good
quality. For a long time, I thought it was a soundboard boot, but I
finally noticed enough crowd noises that I'm fairly sure it's an
audience boot. It's about as high-quality as an audience boot can get,
though, the only real problem is some tubbiness in the sound from the
hall reverberation.
The title? At the beginning, as the synths are fading in, there's suddenly
a lot of very loud fireworks going off -- you hear the explosions plus
the hall echoes very clearly. The whole crowd goes "Boooooooo....." and
groans.
The disc consists of all of "Wish You Were Here," plus (I think, I don't
have the disc in front of me) "Fat Old Sun" from the BBC shows. The latter
is mastered from somewhat crackly vinyl, but is decent otherwise. But I
bought it for the New York '77 performance of WYWH. The main complaints
I have are (1) the vocals get kinda ragged at times, as Floyd was wont to
do live, and (2) the rest of the 2-LP boot of the same name wasn't included
as a second CD. Having said that, the performances are really good, the
sound is taken from a clean tape (except for FOS), and overall it's one of
the best boots from the "Animals" tour. Definitely my favorite Floyd CD
boot.
>Rolling Stones: A Beggars Opera [bootleg, live '66 - '68]
A correction on this one: it's studio outtakes from '66 - '69. Some are
from the Beggar's Banquet sessions, others are from pre- Let It Bleed
sessions. The major minus here is that it's all mastered from vinyl.
BUT... it sounds better than any of the vinyl boots I've heard that
are from the same sessions. OK, not quite -- the "Trident Mixes" double
boot sounds like second generation (but who knows?). There's partial overlap
between the ABO CD boot, the "On the Rocks" CD boot (poorer quality),
and three LP boots I have. ABO is the best CD boot from these sessions
I've heard. Uh, confused yet? Anyway, ABO has neat outtakes, like two
versions of "Family" (did this ever appear legitimately?).
Of course, I recommend that readers obey all applicable copyright laws, and
that they use the term "alternative live recordings" when inquiring about
bootlegs in record stores. I thought that all of these were legit Fan
Club recordings when I bought them, really 8} .
>Among the many 1989 releases I haven't heard yet, but which I suspect
>could have made the list (preconceptions? what preconceptions?!?) are:
>
>John Zorn: Spy vs. Spy (I'll be listening to this in about 20 minutes)
Listened to this last night. It's quite crazed. Imagine two sax players on
speed (one in each channel) interpreting Ornette Coleman in a manner
calculated to drive their neighbors completely insane. Imagine two dwarves,
one hanging onto each ear, plunging awls into your ears, laughing fiendishly,
while you're trapped inside a big garbage can that two more dwarves bang on
relentlessly. As you might suspect, I like it, but it does get to be a
bit much at points. Toward the end, the paces slows, and makes for a
nice contrast. I would add it to my list, but not with a (*) star.