Marillion

Yes pop pickers it's been a busy year and this overdue part of the vinyl project is complete.
You see I original had these albums initially as I bought them for my brother but only got around to buying one for myself namely Misplaced Childhood back in the day as I had them copied to tape. Needless to say tape isn't in my current stereo system so I had to put matters aright and as they were intended for lp at the time I bought the UK first issue lps.

Formed in Aylesbury, England in 1979 they are a progressive rock band -aka Prog Rock - and as such hark back to style of song writing which scans more like prose with strong imagery and complex musical arrangements.

Script For A Jester's Tear EMI EMC 3429: Issued in1983 and home of He Knows You Know and Garden Party which were hit 45's this was the first album and sounded the most like 70's Genesis.
Fugazi EMC 24 0085-1: issued in early 1984 this was one album that really made me pay attention to what this new band had to offer featuring the hits single Assassing.
Real To Real: Issued late 1984 this is a live album part recorded in Canada and part in the UK that did feature their first single Market Square Heroes that wasn't issued on album.
Misplaced Childhood EMI MRL2 (EJ24 0340-1): One of the best selling albums of 1985 featuring the singles Lavender and Kayleigh that remain popular to the present day. On lp it sound a lot better than the UK cd version I have.
Clutching At Straws EMI EMD 1002: Issued in 1987 the album that is very much about the touring life it was the last studio album to feature vocalist Fish and the home of the singles Incommunicado and Sugar Mice

Kashimashi!

Only available in R1 I'm currently watching the anime based on the manga that I own. The story is that of a love triangle between three girls but with a twist for Hazumu was formally a boy who declared his love for Yasuna only o have it rejected.
Feeling so rejected from being spurned, Hazumu took to the mountains and was squashed by an alien spaceship. 

Feeling sorry for what hey had done in an act of restitution they remade his body but they for it wrong for he was now a girl!

From now on Hazumu needs to learn to be the girl of her parents desire while in the throws of this love triangle between Tomari and Yasuna which commenced when Tomari oversaw Yasuna and Hazumu kissing.

If this wasn't enough the alien responsible for Hazumu's new life reveals she has only 3-0 days to live and only by merging her fate with another can she survive.

Past gurlhood music

Music it has to be said played an important part in my life and especially through my childhood whither or not it's what we call popular or what is usually classified as classical. 
Music has this amazing ability to transmit emotions, stimulate the mind as well as taking us on epic journeys of discovery.

Music in connection with readings ties in with me for Christmas which always meant which Carols from Kings loving to hear the young boy choristers sing.

This was an early cd I bought because it contains the readings I grew up with as a boy and the beautiful sang carols.
 
Sometimes music is an end in itself such as such as recital or rock concert, it may the accompaniment of a dance as many Waltzes were intend to or an integral part in a grand production such as stage show, opera or ballet together with other artistic disciplines.

Music has a lot to offer people especially children and thoughtful educators have always tried to introduce not just musical concepts as harmony, melody, time etc as well but encouraging children to play an instrument themselves as well as in ensembles.

At my primary school I played the xylophone, glockenspiel, triangle as well as tambourine in school productions, assemblies and we had separate music classes during the week to learn new pieces of music as well as develop our abilities which for some of was a challenge!

One of the first prices of classical music I heard was Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade  an epic tale based on the book of 1000  and one nights (aka The Arabian Nights) told in rich symphonic sound with a wonderful role the Violin when I was just over nine years of age when my teacher decided to play it for us.

It wasn't long before I was pestering daddy for a copy of this on lp record as by that point I'd got a stereo record player of my own.

In 1992 I bought the newly remastered cd version of it on Classics for Pleasure, loving Hugh Bean's solo violin part.

Fortunately here in the UK there were and still are many classical music programs on the radio that give you the opportunity to explore works you may be unfamiliar with and through them I learned about people like Beethoven, Chopin and Berlioz among others and their music.

As well in time I started to build my own library of recordings such as the Beethoven Symphonies in my teens that I write about yesterday.

I also had recordings of Tchaikovsky ballets at the time - he was a way with musical characterizations like Puss and Boots in the third act of  Sleeping Beauty and I adore the entire Nutcracker suite.

So you could say my classical music collection originally started on ye olde lp record and for a brief period went to cassettes as their quality improved in the early 1980's.
The first classical cd I bought was one of Sibelius's tone poems by the Berlin Philharmonic followed by  Lalo Espagnole Symphonie disc in 1986.

I had a mania for Violin music and was lucky to get the two lp box set of Paganini's First Violin Concerto and 24 Caprices as performed by Itzhak Perlman on British  HMV with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Laurence Foster replacing them on cd eventually.

Those copies were Japanese pressed editions from 1985 when Emi belatedly decided to make recordings available in the new cd format.

I developed a love of the music of the Strauss family, wheelchair dancing to waltzes and aided by the annual Vienna New Years Day concert broadcast on BBC Radio Three at the time I tuned into religiously.

I recently bought this six cd box set of the man to which his performances of them were what I listened to in that era Willi Boskovsky recorded in the late 60's and early 70's with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

They pretty much contain every performance I heard from the borrowed records and tapes I had then, all remastered from the original analogue stereo tapes arranged by composition type originally released by Decca over here.

Fortunately compared to the early days of compact discs such sets are fairly inexpensive having serviceable booklets about the music.

Billy Joel, Piano Man

This week we're back to music and looking at Billy Joel who I followed certainly around the time I was in high school  and I've been collecting recordings by him ever since.

He was born William Martin Joel in 1949 in Long Island, New York formed a band called the Echoes in 1964 the year of the 'British Invasion and later on formed a hard rock band in late 1960's called The Hassles from which a duo with their drummer Jon Small.

In 1973 on the strength of shows in the Northeastern United States he signed a recording contract with Columbia Records  which led to his debut album album Cold Spring Harbour being issued. 

The first two cds by Billy I bought were An Innocent Man and The Bridge in their European issues following up with the Japanese cd made for Europe of Nylon Curtain, The US versions of Storm Front plus River Of Dreams and a minidisc (RIP) of Streetlight Serenade together with Greatest Hits III in 1998.

Recently I have acquired a couple of specialty label cds from Mobile fidelity (Mofi) of Chicago, Ill. by him and it's these I wish to talk about.

In so far as most Britons are concerned he came to notice during Elton John's unavailability late 77, Early '78 but actually Billy went back much further than that but simply they'd not heard that early material.

 
Piano Man which remains one of the finest albums by a contemporary rock artist taking his observations on NJ life including the controversial Captain Jack that tackles drug abuse . 

As well it is worth noting this album is clearly influenced by Elton's Tumbleweed Connection as well as having a Western theme running thru it.

Piano Man is a fictionalized account of his own story working the bars, trying earn a dollar.

Turnstiles was the next one up and was the second just issued by Mofi which features New York state of Mind in it's original mix rather than the remix used for all previous cd versions as well as Miami 2017 and the epic Say Goodbye To Hollywood.

All these discs are Super Audio cds with a higher resolution layer for suitably equipped layers and  a regular layer for my own cd player.
 
I was fortunate to borrow  the the Audio Fidelity 52nd Street which I didn't like  finding it too muddy so elected to elected to stay with my 1994 Sony Mastersounds gold disc.

Bamboo Blade

I'm presently watching the shojo (girl's) sports series Bamboo Blade.

The story starts with perpetually broke part-time Muroe High School coach Toraji Ashida making a bet with an old school chum: if he can assemble a winning girl's kendo (Japanese fencing) team, then he'll get a year's free dinners at a sushi restaurant.

As instructors go he's the laughing stock of all the others which is hardly inspiring.

Sounds corny but you have to hang the plot on something I guess! 

Ashida-sensei's motives may be less than altruistic, but he manages to recruit a few promising candidates. 

The wildcard in his hand is short of stature Tamaki Kawazoe, who's grown up in her family's dojo (training complex) and is a likely candidate for a national title. 

Tama-chan loves Super Sword Squadron Blade Bravers , a sci-fi anime spoof where she finds playing on her desire to emulate the champions of justice in the series, Ashida gets her to join the team, knowing her skill and speed will inspire the other girls to win.

Beethoven: Symphonies

Collecting classical recordings often seems daunting with many hundreds of recordings being issued over the decades and made available in differing forms. 

Beethoven was an early passion of mine from hearing many of his works on the radio or through borrowed discs.

To me at least there is a difference between seeking out outstanding versions of individual symphonies and finding a set to live with, and while there are undoubtedly performances of single symphonies available which could compete with the best, it is as a coherent and aesthetically consistent survey that Cluytens accounts - available in this set - are best considered .

I feel there is a rightness to his judgement which proves enormously satisfying on repeated listenings and there is a special interest in hearing the fruits of a combination of several stellar talents: the virile, robust sound of the pre-Karajan Berlin Philharmonic, the production genius of Walter Legge working in a congenial recording acoustic, the Romantic but never indulgent interpretations of am under-rated conductor who died all too soon, and the especially fine vocal contributions from an unusual team of soloists and the wholly committed choir of St Hedwig's Cathedral - wrapped up in a set available cheaply from the likes of Amazon.

In my teens I became acquainted with Beethoven's symphonies through these performances when they were available as budget LP's on the EMI Classics for Pleasure label collecting the complete set and was worried that many years later my judgement would be clouded by sentimental attachment, however having listened intently to a good many other versions, I find that this set stands up remarkably well. 

The Pastoral (my favourite of the lot) and the Ninth have long been praised but you will find equally enthusiastic endorsements of every symphony here in one review or you'll be hard pressed to find a discouraging word. 

They are not the last word in individuality, nor do they bear the stamp of a particular approach, but Cluytens seems to understand and appreciate the spirit and heart of this music. 

Absolutely no-one captures the cat-like tread of the opening of the Fourth the way Cluytens does; rhythms and accents are beautifully sprung and he pays close attention to dynamics. 

I was also especially pleased to discover that Nicolai Gedda, was much more impressive than I remembered him in the Choral, and the soaring refulgence of Gre Brouwenstijn's soprano is a special treat.

Herbert von Karajan's recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic are often interesting but to me he's never conducted an even as set as this Cluytens set with the same orchestra.

The remastered stereo sound is warm and spacious preserving a sense of being present at the session; excellent for recordings made between 1957 and 1959.

Phil Collins: One More Night

This week at long last is the entry around a solo artist from a well respected rock group that I never got around to typing about until today.

Phil Collins first came to my attention around 1978 when the Genesis "Then There Were Three" album came out with its hit single "Follow You, Follow Me" playing  on heavy rotation on the radio, following front man Peter Gabriel's decision to leave the band for good establishing his own solo career.

This certainly was a challenge holding on to the old fan base who generally liked lengthy tunes with lots of words and a to die for stage show but they didn't just do it immediately they actually grew the fan base! 

Nobody had heard of a drummer becoming a front man and and lead singer before but hey someone had to do it!

By 1981 however Phil wanted to experiment more outside of the constraints of being in a band and so recorded what became the Face Value album which proved very popular featuring the hit singles In The Air Tonight, I Missed Again and If Leaving Me Is Easy.

Strangely enough until recently I never owned this album relying on his 1998 Hits album for these tracks but hearing a brand new specialist edition remastered from the analogue tapes was to be issued by the label Audio Fidelity I was intrigued although I had to ordered it from America as it was way too expensive over here.

I'd never heard Phil's cover of the Beatles number Tomorrow Never Knows and he handles it well.

This sounded really good showing just what improvements in the technology to convert analogue to digital for cd has moved on in the decades since cd was introduced.
Last week (18 Oct 2011)Amazon .com dispatched his 1982 Hello,I Must Be Going album that Audio Fidelity has just released which again being familiar with the singles such as the Motown cover You Can't Hurry Love, Thru These Walls and Don't Let Him Steal Your Heart away

In early 2011 Audio Fidelity issued No Jacket Required from 1985 which despite selling by the cartload I'd never owned either and as I really liked the singles from it such as Take Me Home, Sussudio, Inside Out and the blog titles One More Night a song US President Reagan liked apparently I thought I'd pony up for it.

It didn't disappoint and in some ways of the three I've heard it's the one I like the most.

It's funny how sometimes because an artist is like always on the radio you just fail to pick up their albums but that's what happened and I'm glad to have caught up with them in time and recently picked up the AF reissue of But Seriously from 1988 with its anti homelessness top selling single Another Day In Paradise.

Tidied up in 2014 by tammy