#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - #3 - Soused - Scott Walker and Sunn O)))

I've actually found an album from this decade though Scott Walker has been making records since the 1950s but when I heard "Brando" from "Soused" I was actually stunned. His collaboration with drone noise masters Sunn O)))  is definitely not easy listening, and the only tangible link you have with The Walker Brothers is the voice.

I've written a few posts about Scott Walker and he did become the epitome of an artist well documented in "30th Century Man". The fact that he made challenging music up to the end will no regard for commerciality was incredibly creditable and , to my ears listenable.

So I know this is a short post because I don't want to just repeat what I posted in my other posts (which you can check out if you wish and have time) but it really is an awesome and amazing album.

#AprilSongs #9 Tuesday Morning

I'm still waiting for my roof to be sorted, and need to have a shower before work, but after last week's "Tuesday Afternoon" by The Moody Blues we will go with "Tuesday Morning by The Pogues.

I don't know if you know that the Pogues take their name from the phrase "póg mo thóin" which is apparently Irish for "KIss My Arse" but at the time no one was sure if "Pogues was Kisses or Arses and "Pogue Mahone" was the seventh album by the band (wiki entry here) , but the Oxford English Dictionary lists Pogue as "Kiss" here.

"Tuesday Morning" is up there with The Pogues best and if you have never heard it take a couple of minutes not and enjoy it. There is so much music we never even hear, often by our favourite artists, and often we concentrate on two or three albums, and this is a discovery for me thanks to me doing the #AprilSongs sequence.

This proves that it's good to set up the tiniest of projects to force yourself to do things, and the main reason for doing this is that I want to hit two thousand posts on Seven Days In (Not Seven Day Sin as some people have pointed out) and I wasn't really posting enough this year, and April should put me ahead of the curve. I've also been nominated for #TenAlbumsInTenDays and am posting those as well, plus my appearance on The Chain, so there is every possibility that I may hit fifty posts this month, unlikely but you never know.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - #2 - The Last Post - Carbon Silicon

My initial plan was to choose albums from this decade, but I've gone back to the last decade for this one, but I'm still in the most recent century and millenium. When I heard "The News" from "THe Last Post" it was one of the most exhilarating and hopeful songs I'd heard though it was released at a time when things were improving and looking great.

The album was a collaboration between Mick Jones (The Clash,Big Audio Dynamite) and Tony James (Sigue Sigue Sputnik which I always thought was Zigue Zigue Sputnik) but that's just me showing my musical ignorance.

So I know this is just a short post on today's #TenAlbumsInTenDays post but it is another excuse to share "The News", though I also love "The Magic Suitcase" as well, but it's a great album well worth a listen.

So it's Monday morning , time for work, and I hope you have a great one.

#AprilSongs #8 Blue Monday

There might be a few Blue Mondays before the end of April. The first one I've chosen is the Fats Domino one. When I say they will be a few Blue Mondays I mean that there are quite a few songs called "Blue Monday" although most people will now associate the title with the band New Order, though I am not sure that one will be included in the #AprilSongs sequence and there are quite a few other options.

The morning I finished Michael Moorcock's "The Skrayling Tree" and I now know what it meant as I hadn't a clue when I picked the book up. The book is a swirl of ideas and genres with references to Moorcock's early work as well as various mythologies and histories with a finale in a giant golden ziggurat on a frozen lake in extreme North America.

I'm not sure if that stimulated a dream that I suddenly remembered as I read the final sequence, where a couple of North American friends Pandora and Gina and I were posting Instagram videos of us walking out onto frozen lakes as far as we dared. Mine was the lake in Leazes Park and while I have seen it iced over I have never considered walking out on it. I remember as a kind walking over iced ponds and once the ice cracked while a friend was in the middle, I've never seen anyone move so fast and he got back to the shore without getting wet.

Yesterday I mowed the lawn for the first time this year, and it's April. Having said that it does look very well, whereas most years I think I am going to have to get it relaid, but it is looking good.

So I know it's Monday morning , but although it's grey we're getting closer to Spring and Summer. Have a good day.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - #1 - Bardo Jordan Reyne

I've been nominated for the #TenAlbumsInTenDays by my friend Tim Barlow and this is my fourth nomination and I'm always up for it but each time I want to take a new angle on it. Now generally we always probably hit our teenage years between 14-18 but I am wondering if I can do ten albums from the last decade. Too often people limit themselves to a particular time, and that doesn't mean that the albums of that time were bad or less good, but maybe they did hit us with more impact because we had a lot less experience of what was available to us.

So I am kicking of with Jordan Reyne's "Bardo" which is more hypnotic dark Celtic mood pieces, and a welcome return as she had said she was retiring from music. Ever since I first saw her, she has been the most striking artist I have have experienced, combining so much talent in one person.

When "Bardo" was announced I immediately pre-ordered it because I knew it would be brilliant, and I was not disappointed. Yes it is more Jordan Reyne, but that is more musical adventure and perfection , tinged with her antipodean Celtic menace, although I believe she is now based in Poland. That also brings  a connection with my Chain post yesterday which was the actual pronunciation of "Warszawa" from David Bowie's "Low".

I do hope to get to see her again, but will share the opener from "Bardo" with you "Exiter".

#AprilSongs #7 Sunday Evening

Continuing on in this sequence I've done the first week without being too obvious, and today is "Sunday Evening" by The Black Angels. On first listen you think 1960's Garage Psychedelia, but it's actually only five years old and I have a couple of their albums which I obviously need to revisit.

This is one of the problems with any music collection, you don't listen end to end, and very often will buy things then listen and forget or not even listen.. I am currently selling CDs that I wont play again on Discogs , I do actually like playing a single or album and share Vinyl Plays on my Instagram Channel under the tag #VitalVinyl

So today will be just relaxing though maybe a trip into town to get a few things, and maybe catch up on some TV shows, as well as possibly another blog post later on.

Just listening to 6Music interviewing to an artist talking about the last album they "streamed" , not listened to, and that is part of the problem that at times people don't really listen, but that has been with us since the advent of CD allowing us to program and skip stuff we didn't like or were bored with. Don't get me wrong I love the convenience of digital, but sometimes taking away the controls from you is a good thing which is why I listen to the Radio and Vinyl.

Enjoy your Sunday

My First Chain Appearance

Well I was chosen for The Chain once before but pulled at the last minute for what was deemed a better connection. I gave up when I heard a connection that was basically "Ronnie Wood or Keith Richard had a similar hairstyle", What? That week Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie were away so not to blame for that aberration.

Anyway yesterday I got a text from Sarah at 6Music as I had put in a suggestion that I had then forgotten about. I then remembered it was the Peter Schilling song "Major Tom" which is the theme song used in "Deutschland 83" (and 86 and 89) , the eighties cold war  German drama (with some very funny dry comedy).

The song is perfect eighties a la Flock of Seagulls, although I originally that it had been especially commissioned. It wasn't, but I had never heard it before in my life.

Then I met my friend Katie for a meal at Bohemian (now Junk It Up) which also had a vinyl section (yes I know, unusual cross selling) and the single that was at the front of their section was "Major Tom" by Peter Schilling, so I had to buy it.

While the lyrics sometimes hit the creakiness of Abba's (it is their second language after all) the very short chorus is wonderful and the overall song is great and sticks in your mind like all great pop music.

The Chain link is from Bowie's "Warszawa" from "Low" part of the Berlin Trilogy. The two connections are Berlin (via "Deutschland 83") and "Major Tom" with the "Space Oddity" connection. The show will be available for a bit here and my appearance is around 72 minutes in, 1.14.26 according to my friend Nigel.

So this is just to mark that I've been on The Chain. and my entry is recorded here, number 7868.