40 Records in 40 Years (32/40 - 2005)

In view of the fact that we had undertaken no bigger trip last year we started this year with another trip to India. This time we wanted to explore the north or Rajastahn or maybe known as the land of the kings. Located in the north-east of India it is famous for its palaces and the great Thar Dessert. We knew that there less infrastructure in this part of India so we hired in Mumbai a taxi driver to take us for a 18 day round trip. And after all it was the best election we could make. Fixing a price a day that included everything made it easy to calculate and we didn't have to watch out a taxi driver any day. We told him about what kind of lodgings we expect and he picked out everything fine. Of course we knew that he get commission to bring us to this lodgings. It was a very easy way to travel through this country, sitting in the back of the old Amassador cars with no air-condition. It was fantastic to visit all the forts and palaces in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Udaipur. We were highly impressed by Pushkar, a small town with a small holy lake for the Hindus. Once a year hundreds of traders assemble in this town around to sell their camels. It's impressive to see thousands of camels often painted and ready to sell. We had great fun walking through this crowd, sitting down to some traders drinking tea and smoking some cigarettes. Another experience will also remain to us always in recollection. It is when we spent one night in the desert. We arranged that someone took us out in the dunes in the very late afternoon just before sundown. These were two impressions which remain unforgettable: The absolute silence and the cold at night. How glad we were when a boy came next morning to bring us a hot cup of tea.

The records impressed me also this year:

• The Arcade Fire - Funeral: Fine Indie Rock from Canada
• Tocotronic - Pure Vernunft darf niemals sterben: Another great record from one of Germany's best band
• Hard-Fi - Stars on CCTV: Sounds like back in the late 70s
• The White Stripes - Get behind me Satan: Maybe their masterpiece
• Element of Crime - Mittelpunkt der Welt: Another great German record
• LCD Soundsystem - same: Great track galore
• Marcus Miller - Silver Rain: Perfect fusion sound
• The Dead 60s - same: Perfect combination of punk, ska, dub and reggae
• Paul Weller - As is now: Another great record of the modfather
• Wolfmother - same: The return of Black Sabbath

Some of this years songs that stood the test of time:

Just a short look into the cinema in 2005:

• Brokeback Mountain: The other side of western
• Capote: Seymoure Hoffmann at his best
• Walk the Line: Fantastic biopic about the life of Johnny Cash
• Sin City: Sensational
• Fever Pitch: Fantastic novel - great movie

Some notes from the rest of the world

Another stampede during a religious pilgrimage kills more than 250 people in India // ETA is bombing in Madrid again // North Korea announces that it possesses nuclear weapons // Pope John Paul II dies // You Tube is launched // Massive rain in Mumbai, India with nearly 40 inches in 24 hours // Bloody civil war in Chad is starting

Von Spatzen und Tauben, Dächern und Händen (From sparrows and pigeons, roofs and hands) is a real top album. There is nothing in it to turn. "After you and how many of your friends" the measuring pole was extremely high. Kettcar has done justice to the expectations. Nevertheless, according to my personal opinion this album is even better than the predecessor. It begins with the song Deiche (dykes) a powerful song with great guitars and the magnificent sentence 'Only becaus one has got used to it, is not brilliant normal' and furthermore there are wonderful songs which act from the truthfulness of the love like of mentioning 48 Stunden (48 hours), Balu und Nacht (night).

Kettcar have packed me like for a long time nobody more. I keep this album for the best German-speaking album for many years has found accomodation. To handle their kind with the German has completely inspired me. They tell these small magic stories are able to grow in the head to novels where own cinema runs off, go down in the demimonde between dream and reality. Simply great!
No weak point can be discovered. This album develops a magic them is fantastic. Musically you sum up everything, the beat comes if he must come, the piano puts accents where to one more accent is absent, the guitars bring everything home like it must be a gigantic praise, smaller fine guitar rock pop in the best best way Dirk Darmstaedter used to do it. Kettcar simply didn't do anything wrong on this record.

Kettcar - Deiche
Kettcar - 48 Stunden
Kettcar - Balu
Kettcar - Anders als gedacht
Kettcar - Nacht

40 Records In 40 Years (27/40 - 2000)

Welcome to the new millennium and to a new employer. As I have already indicated last week I have got difficulties with my directors. To cut a long story short: he put the blame on me because he lost his face in front of all other employees. Because I would not longer stand any other chicaneries in the future I have already applied last year for a new job. With some connections I built up the last years I got a very good job in our capital Stuttgart. It was hard to leave the company and all my co-workers behind after 23 years. But I have also been glad about the new challenge. The first weeks were hard because it was all new and totally different. I used to work in a familiar bank and now I came to a bank that tried to work as a really big bank. Anyway, I did my best to get my position in this bank.

Christiane and I have grown together more and more and we decided to take a longer time out and go traveling to India for 5 weeks. We spent a lot of evenings to plan our vacation. I haven't been there before so it was a great surprise how it will be. I heard about the poorness, dirt and crowded places but I wanted it to see by myself. In fact that this is a very big country we decided to travel 'only' through the southern part of India, Kerala. And we wanted to travel by ourself - not with any guided and fully arranged tour. So we fixed the places we wanted to see not knowing how to get there. We traveled by bus, train and sometimes by a taxi and it worked easily. We have seen a beautiful and for Indian relations a rich country. Kerala produces the most of home vegetables in India and their number of illiterates is less than 20% because this region was civilized by Portugal. Impressed of a lot pictures and places we have seen we spent a week to relax on Goa, a place where the hippies went to in the late 60s. A few of them were still there but most of them toothless and stoned. When you sat at the beach at sundown you could hear sounds that my ears didn't knew before. So I was introduced to the Goa sound.

Not much records this year but it might be my fault because I listened much to old school jazz, funk and soul music this year:

• Radiohead - Kid A: More electronic sounds with influences of Krautrock and Jazz now on it now
• Phoenix - United: This summers record comes from France 
• Coldplay - Parachutes: This record is the reason why I listen to them still
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven: Canadian instrumental post rock - fantastic
• Steely Dan - Two Against Nature: They are back on the same high level
• Underworld - Everything, Everything: Just dancefloor but awesome
• Santana - Supernatural: His last good work

This are some songs from 2000 I remember very well:

Of course we went to the cinema this year again:

• The Perfect Storm: Fantastic novel and a congenial movie as well
• Gladiator: A good period movie
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Martial art at it's best
• Billy Elliot: Great movie about a boy going his way
• Oh Brother, Where Art Though: The Coen brothers going to Homer's Odyssey 
• The Beach: I've been there
• High Fidelity: What are your top 5?
• Almost Famous: Movie about the Rock and Roll Circus
• Snatch: Crazy story with an excellent Brad Pitt and Vinnie Jones

Let's take a little look what happened in the rest of the world:

Pope John Paul II apologizes for wrongdoings by members of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the ages // Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia // Civil war in Sierra Leone, Africa starts // The Tate Modern Gallery opens in London // At the Roskilde Festival 9 people die and 26 are injured on a set while Pearl Jam performs // France defeats Italy 2:1 after extra time in the final of the European Championship // The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea, all 118 members on board die // Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visits Temple Mount and Palestinian riots erupt 

Calexico's third record Hot Rail was a great step forward in their career. Sure they played that sound before but now they added horns and violins in their sound. As I was a kid I used to watch a lot of western movies and I loved when the gunman hit the saloon and saw a Mariachi band playing. Dressed up in their suits and big sombreros the played their Mexican instrumental songs and mostly added with a trombone. These pictures comes to my sense when I listen to Calexico. Named by a town in California they play a kind of desert rock (often called Americana but I don't like this classification) with a lot of influence by the Mariachi sound. It is one of these records I have chosen when I had to drive a long distance. There are less records that are so relaxed and cool as this one. The songs slowly develop from easy, almost monotonous rhythms and quiet melodies. Partially these are rather sound collages than songs. Every movement solidifies, the thoughts become pleasantly sluggish. Only the Mariachi inserts rouse the listener over and over again briefly to let feel him, however, immediately that he has mounted again only of one fates Morgana. I know a similar mood from "Siesta" by Miles Davis.

Calexico - Ballade of Cable Hogue

Calexico - Crystal Frontier

Calexico - Drenched

Calexico - Dia De Los Muertos

Calexico - Chach (Tasha Bundy Remix)