Innerlands

 

Last Monday, I introduced the new song by The Woodentops, in which Rolo McGinty musically captures his feelings about the River Thames. As I listened, Mark Peters, an English singer-songwriter and producer, came to mind again; on his 2017 debut album, he set his impressions of Lancastrian locations to music.

Innerlands is a shimmering, unhurried masterpiece of ambient guitar music. The instrumentals are strongly reminiscent of Vini Reilly’s finest moments, when he was recording sessions in the studio with Brian Eno. Anyone who hasn’t yet warmed to ambient music should give this atmospheric masterpiece a listen.

Mark Peters - Windy Arbour

Mark Peters - May Mill

Another Green World

 

50 years ago Brian Eno released Another Green World, another step away from what Roxy Music made famous. Legend has it that he had to go to hospital and his girlfriend at the time played him harp music, which combined with the raindrops on the window to create a sound that left a lasting impression on him.

With Another Green World, he also took his final step into ambient music, creating soundscapes that later artists still draw on today. These compositions were interrupted by John Cale's viola and Robert Fripp's superb guitar playing. 

For me it is a record that still sounds fresh after all these years and the more I listen to it I discover new fascinating ideas in these songs.

Brian Eno - Everything Merges With The Night

Brian Eno - Sky Saw

Brian Eno - I'll Come Running

Brian Eno - In Dark Trees

Shleep

 

Today Robert Wyatt will turn 80 - a day to remember him. He was the drummer of prog-/art-rock band Soft Machine. They released several critical highly acclaimed records but I have to admit that they still aren't my cup of tea. Wyatt left the band in the early seventies and formed another bands to release his eclectic sounds. Many of his releases were also recommended as one of the best recordings ever. For me he made only one record that I play from time to time is Shleep.

On this record he returned after a while of absence and new additional musicians. Most of the songs have a very slow mood and songs that shows his abilities of songwriting. Musicians like Brian Eno, Paul Weller and Phil Manzanera made most the songs more than superb. Surely not everyone's taste but a smart look into another galaxy of music.

Wrong Way Up

 

It happens that I occasionally run out of inspiration for this little blog. I usually grab my external hard drive and scroll through the individual files (which I should have reorganized a long time ago). This is how I came across an album that I haven't listened to for a long time and has never been mentioned here.

After working together on and off for years, Brian Eno and John Cale released their only album Wrong Way Up in 1990 and concentrated on songwriting. After a good decade of pushing himself musically to the limits of the esoteric, it seems to have done him good to record a semi-electronic album with Cale. 

Nothing and nobody sounded like this back then. Eno makes the synths shimmer and twitch, Cale plays a funky guitar and shows that a viola can only be beneficial to the music. Ultimately, it is a forgotten masterpiece that set the standard for pop songs.

Brian Eno & John Cale - One Word

Brian Eno & John Cale - Lay My Love

Brian Eno & John Cale - Spinning Away

Brian Eno & John Cale - Been There Done That

Monday's Long Song

 

The past years have seen Duncan Gray champion a sludgy, slow-mo take on dance music that favors chuggy bass guitars and psychedelic sound palettes and drag and drop samples. He was featured at this place several times and often with new releases that were all over the usual average of new releases in electronic music. Now he's back with a new release on London's tici taca label. Short Haul is a bassy song inspired by the sound of Bill Laswell and Eno's/Byrne's Bush of Ghosts with great guitar parts in the second half. Anyway a one of the best songs this year so far.

Monday's Long Song

Brain Eno released his first regular studio album after six years and various collaborations. FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE is a another piece of his work as a pioneer of ambient and spatial music showing that he is still relevant in these times. You can find collaborations with parts of his family and Jon Hopkins (probably today's Eno) and some songs sung by him or his sister. This one is a piece I like much because it shows how ambient and electronic music can come together in perfect harmony. 

 

Dub Housing

 

A few days ago while I looked for something other I found Dub Housing by Pere Ubu. I almost forgot that I had a CD version from their 1978 album. Formed in Cleveland in the late 70's they created their very own version of rock music. Inspired by punk as a new form of music they added elements of krautrock and free jazz to their cosmos. Seldom heard a darker and dangerous sound like on their first albums. If any music can hurt than theirs. I know this is not the cup of tea for everyone and lots of people would annoy this kind of music but if you are willing to to go to the darkest chapter in punk/new wave influenced music you have to listen to this. A tour de force of experimental sound. On the other side many bands were influenced by them. Once I read that they were the link between Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, Soft Machine, Brian Eno and This Heat and I have to say this is true.

Pere Ubu - Codex

Pere Ubu - Dub Housing

Pere Ubu - Ubu Dance Party

Monday's Long Songs

 

Another slow start to the week and with a new song by Nils Frahm a Berlin based pianist and composer. I featured him several times during the last years at this place and now again because he announced a new album for September. It is the first new album after he released collected works from the last years and what I heard so far is much better than them. Music for Animals sounds like he combined Brian Eno's Music for Airports with very own ambient works. Right Right Right shows him at a peak of his output and fusions his ambient works with krautrock elements.

Monday's Long Song

 

Stephen Mallinder was one of the founding members of Sheffield's industrial pioneers Cabaret Voltaire. The influenced many bands playing a new kind of electronic music. Mallinder released in 1982 his first and almost forgotten solo album Pow Wow where he moved away from CV's sound. Inspired by krautrock and bands like Neu! and Eno he worked on an extraordinary sound including fragments of Giorgio Moroder sounds. I rediscovered this record while I got the news of his new album and I still like the music he made. Timeless bass-driven  an motorik sounds that combined perfectly post-punk, disco and krautrock. 

Stephen Mallinder - Cool Down

And I can't resist to feature his dubby experience at this place.

Stephen Mallinder - Temperature Drop

Nightlight

 

New York based band Suss released their first album Ghost Box in 2018 and they called their sound ambient country music. I had no idea what this could sound like but I was fascinated by their songs from the first time. The closest description was Brian Eno joins Ennio Morricone for making a new soundtrack for a spaghetti western. During the last year I played this record often when I would like to come down and relax. Now Suss released their third album Promise and their sound moved more to a nocturnal journey closer to space music while also having a sort of psychedelic undercurrent. Loops and light beats are sometimes present, but the music largely feels unbound by rhythm and free to drift away in wide-open spaces. Sometimes I think this could be an alternative soundtrack to Paris, Texas and I enjoyed this record much but I fear that Suss will be a best hidden secret still.

Monday's Long Song

 

During the last weeks I was listening to ambient music a lot. I can't tell the reason why this music fits to much more than many others. Maybe it's because I am getting older or just because this music is perfect to relax after a hard working day. Anyway, this genre has a long tradition and has it's roots in German electronic music in the late 60'd/early 70's. A few rock musicians from England became aware of the possibilities of the ARP 2600 synthesizer. One of the first was Brian Eno releasing a series of ambient albums. The first one Music For Airports is inspired when he had to wait for a connection flight in 1972 at the airport in Cologne-Bonn. He wasn't satisfied the music should have a calming effect on passengers. He decided to create a better sound and he made a successful job. In studio of legendary German producer Conny Plank he made an album with only four songs and for me it is the blueprint of a sound without many today's artists wouldn't exist.

Brian Eno - 2/2

Monday's Long Song

 

Almost one year ago the first album by Autoelia was released by Demian Castellanos and Tom Relleen. I missed their debut and got aware by recommendation from a friend. Autoelia, as originally coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, describes a process by which someone has a purpose in, rather than outside of themselves. Those who are autotelic depend less on external rewards for their satisfaction, being driven instead simply by purpose or curiosity. Their project was started as an opportunity to play more freely, with less of the process, consideration and production we both associated with our main projects. And that is what you can hear on this record - a free form of kosmische music based on the floor Cluster, early Spacemen 3 and a modern Brian Eno prepared. It is a 13 minute journey into space. Seems like another overlooked band.

Visions Of You

 

30 years ago now Jah Wobble released Rising Above Bedlam, an album where he combined influences of world music with his experiences of post-punk and the collaboration with Holger Czukay. On this album he made a great step forward away from his former roots but still with a deep tempered bass and melody figures I seldom heard before. He also collaborated on this album with Brian Eno and for some songs with Sinéad O'Conner, a voice I always liked to listen to. Visions Of You was probably his biggest chart success but I almost forgot how great this song and his bass lines were. One of my finest founds in my collection during the last days.

Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart - Visions Of You