(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 65: Missing Sun

It’s official: on Thursday we unpacked our son in his dorm room, said our goodbyes, and became empty nesters. One of the biggest gifts I could give him (besides paying for college) was letting him pick the tunes on the trip up, and so a portion of the playlist this week are the tunes he asked for to calm his nerves. The other songs are the ones I used to calm my nerves, and to help get through the emotional rollercoaster of missing his presence. Which means not a lot of commentary this week, hopefully things will get back to some semblance of normality for the next one.

ChrisAugust 30, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

In Flames: Clayman (2000)

I needed something that rocked. Riffs that cut, melodies wrapping you in drama leading to anthemic choruses and killer solos. Normally I’d go with some tried and true 80s thrash, but ever since really falling for their 2023 album Foregone In Flames has entered into the riff rotation. Clayman sits squarely in the overlapping boundaries of the Swedish institution’s two distinct phases: on the one hand are the pocket of albums that helped define the New Wave of Swedish Death Metal sound; on the other is the more processed, streamlined metal the band would continue to refine and tweak for the next quarter of a century. As such, it gets the best of both worlds, and has been a favorite of mine since discovering its sound back in my college days.

ChrisAugust 27, 2025Leave a comment

Vinyl

Atila: El Principio Del Fin (1975)

Blind buys are always a crapshoot, and any criteria you use to make a judgement on a band or album will always only take you so far. Case in point: I read about the debut album from Spain’s Atila on the LaserCD website, and admit I was taken in by lines like “Originally released in 1975 by the obscure New Promotion label in an alleged tiny pressing of 100 copies the album has reached “monster” status among die-hard collectors worldwide, sometimes reaching the 1500€ tag.” So the idea of grabbing El Principio Del Fin (or The Beginning Of The End) in a remastered reissue with liner notes and a bonus CD of an alternate cut of the album sounded great. And…it’s fine? Also I could have just grabbed the digital version on Bandcamp for about $10? Oh well, it still sounds pretty good.

ChrisAugust 25, 2025Leave a comment

Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 64: Gone Too Soon

Rest in power Brent Hinds. Mastodon are one of my favorite bands, and I was already despairing what they’d do without his incredibly singular playing style, not to mention his great vocals. But I assumed I would still get more music from the man in one of his other bands. No more, and life continues to take and take without any regard for what we want. I guess it’s always been that way, but for some reason it stings a little too much this time…

ChrisAugust 23, 2025Leave a comment

Norman Connors: Dance of Magic (1972)

I wasn’t planning on this being a jazz-heavy week, but after listening to the fantastic Les McCann album, I turned to see what other unlistened CDs and records I had lying around and recalled the 2-for-1 disc featuring the first two albums of drummer Norman Connors as a bandleader. Although he’d be more known for his smooth R&B soul jazz in a few years with hits like “Betcha By Golly Wow” and “You Are My Starship”, Dance of Magic shows the man in hardcore jazz mode with a killer lineup helping to bring his vision to life. Also like McCann, it features one massive side-long track followed by a few shorter numbers, but the improvisation and genre mixing goes in both a smoother and more avant-garde direction.

ChrisAugust 19, 2025August 19, 2025Leave a comment

Les McCann: Invitation to Openness (1972)

I didn’t know who Les McCann was, or what kosmigroov was as a genre, but somehow (I assume from Sea of Tranquility) I picked up a copy of McCann’s Invitation to Openness and haven’t looked back. Or forward, really: I’ve pretty much just stayed with this album, but if this is indicative of what the keyboardist/ composer does on his other albums and I’ll need to rectify that soon. Both meditative and funky, psychedelic and jazzy, it’s a gorgeous record that can match me when I need to send into the clouds or come down from the ledge.

ChrisAugust 18, 20251 Comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Month: August 2025