This is really something. Dagmar Krause from Art Bears and Slappy Happy sings the songs of Hanns Eisler. The fact that it was never released in the US is of no consequence now - get it from Amazon or Emusic.
The first of these two fine albums, I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight by Richard and Linda Thompson, has been a favorite of mine since I was eighteen years old (I’m forty-two at the moment). It’s hardly obscure - it’s famous, really. Yet aside from its cult following it seems to be just barely in view. I still have my vinyl copy but when I purchased the CD a few years ago I had to buy an import.
Richard Thompson has been more successful as a solo artist than he ever was when married to and collaborating with Linda Thompson, (nee Linda Peters). Linda, as his muse, (she’s not credited for writing any of the songs) added a kind of gravitas to his work that has since dissipated. By the time of 1991’s Rumor And Sigh, his most popular album, he was writing clownish ditties like Psycho Street. It’s dark but it’ll make you laugh. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight by comparison is a lot more likely to make you hurt. These songs have never seemed exactly sad to me. They aren’t desperate and pleading either. I guess they are resigned, really - the characters in these songs are trapped within their circumstances without a suggestion of redemption or escape.
The title track is like a weekend escape from all this despair. But it’s the final track, The Great Valerio, that is my favorite. I’m your friend until you use me and then be sure I won’t be there.
The Sweetness of the Water is the fourth tenth album by the duo of John Coxon and Ashley Wales known collectively as Spring Heel Jack. Their various collaborators bear as much mention. Evan Parker, Matthew Shipp, Wadada Leo Smith, William Parker, and several others have contributed to their recordings and live shows. This one is particularly lovely. Contemplative and exploring, it’s improvisational but tight. John Coxon’s guitar is compelling and unconventional. The electronics on Lata and Autumn and the repetitive keyboard on Track One, the fifth track, nudge free jazz beyond its normal conventions. And who knew it had any?
…is a cookie. And, of course, a Frank Zappa song.
I did not know that a fellow named David Lynch was a member of The Platters, famous for their hits “Only You” and “The Great Pretender”. I mention this because I had a hunch that “Only You” was on the soundtrack to a movie by the other David Lynch, the film director. Apparently not so. But the song fits that particular brand of discomfiting irony that “Blue Velvet” fooled around with. I’m thinking of the Roy Orbison songs in that film, and the Bobby Vinton title track. There’s nothing creepier than nostalgia mixed with horrific violence. At least there wasn’t until it became a cliche.
I found this documentary on Fred Frith at Netflix after downloading the soundtrack on Emusic. It’s very good. No narration, no interviews, just imagery, bits of conversation, and a lot of music.
I quite like Fred Frith’s list of birds that he viewed on a single day in 2007 and the list of drummers he’s played with in the past 42 years. It’s easy to believe that he’s performed with (more than) 80 drummers. But 52 bird species in one day? No mention of ornithology at his wikipedia page.
