Miles Davis & Gil Evans – The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings

I’ve never really been much into the whole big band thing to be honest. Too structured. This was how many felt about these albums after Miles left Prestige to work with Columbia. Where small bebop groups give everyone their own voice in a big band this is sacrificed in favour of a grander sound. The only real individual voice across most of this work is Miles’, the only exception being Quiet Nights, for all intents and purposes a fine bebop album in its own right.

The set has four albums, Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain and Quiet Nights along with a couple of discs of session material. The best album is Sketches by a long shot. The session material is kind of interesting, built more like a documentary so as to explain how this music was made. To be honest, I don’t see myself listening to the extra material more than once. Each album also has plenty of bonus material at the end, including a complete alternate version of Miles Ahead.

This isn’t my favourite of the metal spine series, because its music is probably the least interesting. It’s well packaged though and does contain the definitive version of Miles Ahead by a long shot. In my opinion you may as well start off with Sketches of Spain and go from there.

Isis - Wavering Radiant

Alright. Going to review some of what Wikipedia calls Post Metal. What an odd name for a genre. I listened to some of this while reading my mail but it didn’t really help all that much. I did however gain some insight into how much banks make from bank fees.

Yeah, don’t really know how to approach this. Normally I’m right into music I don’t understand. There’s some cool guitar stuff in the right channel of Ghost Key. To be honest I wish the whole album was built around that. The vocals are alright clean; don’t really like the growly stuff too much. I can get into it when there’s appropriate aggression behind it but on this he sounds kind of bored. Same with the long songs, it feels like a token thing to me, apart from a couple of good instrumental breaks they’ve confused length with overlength.

On the plus side I actually like the production quite a bit. I wish the guitars were turned down slightly so that the drums would have a greater overall impact but everything is distinguishable and it sets a mood, which makes it more successful than most other metal albums I’ve listened to.

2001: A Space Odyssey

The thing about soundtracks is that I usually find them hard to take seriously outside the context of the film itself. It’s difficult to listen to this without thinking about the movie constantly, in part though this is due to the music being so iconic.

It’s good to hear all of Also Sprach Zarathustra, since not all of it was in the film. By far the greatest work is the vocal piece by György Ligeti, Lux Aeterna. It’s not a song by any stretch, it’s a communication tool. Kind of like twenty feet worth of black monolith.

Charles Mingus - Oh Yeah

The more I listen to Mingus albums the more I notice the formula to the jazz workshop format documented in these releases. In essence, these are live albums without an audience and the more I listen to these the better I understand how jazz shows are constructed. The album feels a little less traditional than Blues and Roots or Mingus-Ah-Um, although the intensity is closer to Blues than Ah-Um. There’s a certain abstract quality in the playing from time to time which feels closer to the sorts of things Coltrane would play in a few years time.

Hog Callin’ Blues is a traditional Mingus opening track. Mingus consistently delivers the most fun opening tracks of any jazz artist. On this album the piano really sticks out more than it has in the past as Mingus has moved from bass to piano on this recording.

Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth

Review# 113

With Teeth took quite a bit of time before I could listen to it and appreciate it musically. It's still far from my favourite album and I don't often listen to it (in fact I have hardly listened to NIN since the rather appalling show Trent put on last time he was here) but it does have some really good moments. There is some good layering going on here, sounds in the background beef up the more prominent sounds and flow together nicely. Some tracks I just find a tad boring but The Hand That Feeds and most of the tracks Dave Ghrol drums on are pretty cool.

You Know Who You Are?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yae8V6QODg

The Hand That Feeds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwhBRJStz7w

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars

Ziggy Stardust (the full title is too long to keep typing) is the quintessential Bowie album. It touches on most of the facets of Bowie’s constantly shifting career, which equal amounts of rock, pop sensibility and psychadelia, which was decidedly uncool by 1972. It’s also one of the best pop albums of all time. Literally anything from this would have done well as a single. It’s definitely an easier listen than Diamond Dogs or the Berlin era.

The album is a loose concept album about a rock star from space. I think it’s supposed to be a response to celebrity idolism (so is basically every Bowie album from the 70’s) but to be honest the concept doesn’t seem to have all that much to do with the songs themselves. If you only get one Bowie album this is probably the safest bet. Although I prefer Diamond Dogs the tone is quite different.

Turisas - The Varangian Way

Review# 112

The Varangian Way is the second album from Finland's Turisas is a concept album about a group of a group of Scandinavians travelling the waterways of Russia down to Constantinople. The Folk/Battle Metal sound that Turisas are famous for works perfectly with the theme of the music and helps build up the image of this group of travellers. It is a well laid out album with a great ebb and flow and range of dynamics. There is a "directors" cut of the album too that adds their cover of Bony M's Rasputin at the end - a good cover but I imagine it would be a bit odd moving from something so serious to that hilarious cover!

To Holmgard And Beyond: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFBIr3Vx16w

Cursed Be Iron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgAamyNWNg8

Guru - Jazzmatazz

Of all the 90’s jazz-rap albums I’ve listened to (yes, all three of them) this one is probably the most consistent. While no individual track is quite as amazingly good as Cantaloop or Jazz (We’ve Got) there aren’t any of the clunkers that are present on the other albums.

If anything this album is a simple appreciation of music. It’s music about how good music is. Lyrically it’s kind of shallow but it’s well constructed enough. The horn playing is really good, it’s certainly switched me on to some quality jazz artists, particularly Donald Byrd and Branford Marsalis.

Top tracks are the opener Loungin’, When Your Near and Le Bien, Le Mal with MC Solaar. The weakest track to me is the lead single Trust Me. Apparently this is the first album in a series, so I’ll be picking up the rest to review this year.