Take that to mean anything you want; for me it’s the reality of coming back from a great family vacation – minus me breaking my finger playing catch of all things, and a jellyfish sting to my son’s ankle (no, we did NOT pee on it…but only because I forgot to think of it) – only to discover that yup: you got the airport crud all up in those lungs. So here I am, laid up on a Sunday morning when I should be cherubically sleeping in my bed, pouring over the stack of CDs that came in while I was away, along with this SACD player I kinda *needed* to check out to see what all the hype was about.
Okay, sue me. It also means the illness of buying (hoarding) more tangible things than I can ever hope to consume. For now, the virus appears balanced with my finances; if that changes we’ll turn this into an auction site.
- Giants Dwarfs and Black Holes – “Reframe”
- Aurora Clara – “Aktur”
- Electric Sandwich – “Nervous Creek”
- Smoke – “Shelda”
- Virus – “King Heroin”
- Blackwater Park – “Roundabout”
- Orion’s Beethoven – “Amistades Desparejas”
- Shakti w/ John McLaughlin – “Joy”
As per usual, a mix of older and new, with an emphasis on reissues focusing on the regular suspects: was there ever a chance I wasn’t going to grab something called Electric Sandwich? Or savor the delicious irony of Blackwater Park, who not only has to culturally contend with some obscure Swedish metal band co-opting the group’s name, but title a song that would in a few short months be forever tied to another famous musical act? Damn, son…at least Virus doesn’t have any negative connotat-, oh, uh…what?
Never mind.
Moving up chronologically, at least in release date if not actual style, Aurora Clara‘s latest album is fantastic, and when I ordered it I tossed in their debut from the Spanish fusion group. Killer guitars and a thick, warm attack…”warm” being a good adjective to describe the more psychedelic prog of Giants Dwarfs and Black Holes – the vocals especially have this horn quality without being “honky” if that means anything.
I know nothing about the Smoke or Orion’s Beethoven albums; the prior was a recommendation from Ken Golden, who runs LaserCD and the Laser’s Edge record label. It sits square in my wheelhouse of early and obscure ’70s rock and prog outside the US/UK scenes. the typical scenes. The latter is another one of the PQR reissues – with Bubu being such a slam dunk I took the blind dive into this and a few more records.
Finally, I like ending on something more epic and personal. When I discovered the music of John McLaughlin back in high school, it wasn’t just Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis’s electric groups – I was introduced to EVERYTHING the man would try, and that includes this gorgeous live recording with Shakti, his Indian focused fusion group. This has long been one of my go-to records when I wanted to relax and let my mind wander, and finally re-acquiring it on CD (lovingly used) has me revisiting it more and more.
Be safe, be good to each other. See you next week.
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