Tuesday, November 20, 2007

half of a 1000 albums

I love lists, particularly of books and records, althought it's vital not to take them too seriously. A case in point is the current 1000 albums to hear before you die feature running in the Guardian, which is a mostly great list of mostly great albums, yet is packed with glaring ommissions.

That really isn't the point, however, and it's a great starting place for people who want to hear new stuff. So, working through from A-M, which is as far as they've got so far, I've drilled down to find three albums from each section - one that I know and unreservedly recommend, one that I've heard of (often from a band I already love) but never managed to hear, and one that is completely new to me, but which sounds interesting.

Any opinions on the listed records much appreciated:

-A- (here)
Love it: Amadou & Mariam - Dimanche à Bamako (2005)
Heard about it: AR Kane- 69 (1988)
New to me: Rabih Abou-Khalil - The Cactus of Knowledge (2000)

-B- (here and here)
Love it: Breeders - Pod (1990)
Heard about it: Big Star - Radio City (1974)
New to me: Peter Brotzman - Machine Gun (1968)

-C- (here and here)
Love it: Coldcut - Journeys by DJ:70 Minutes of Madness (1995)
Heard about it: The Chills - Heavenly Pop Hits (1994)
New to me: Ce'Cile - Bad Gyal (2007)

-D- (here)
Love it: Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me (1987)
Heard about it: The Durutti Column - The Return of the Durutti Column (1978)
New to me: DAF - Gold und Liebe (1981)

-E- (here)
Love it: Brian Eno - Another Green World (1975)
Heard about it: 808 State- Ex:El (1991)
New to me: 801- 801 Live (1976)

-F- (here)
Love it: Fun Boy Three - Fun Boy Three (1982)
Heard about it: Fugazi - 13 Songs (1990)
New to me: The Fugs - The Fugs' First Album (1965)

-G- (here)
Love it: Gastr del Sol - The Serpentine Similar (1993)
Heard about it: Green On Red - Here Come the Snakes (1989)
New to me: Robert Glasper - In My Element (2007)

-H- (here)
Love it: Happy Mondays - Bummed (1988)
Heard about it: Harmonia - Musik von Harmonia (1974)
New to me: Michael Head and the Strands - The Magical World of the Strands (1998)

-I- (here)
Love it: Inner City - Paradise (1989)
Heard about it: Ice T - Power (1988)
New to me: Abdullah Ibrahim - Water from an Ancient Well (1985)

-J- (here)
Love it: James - Stutter (1986)
Heard about it: Daniel Johnston - 1990 (1990)
New to me: Victor Jara - Chile September 1973 Manifesto (1998)

-K- (here)
Love it: Steve Reich - Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint (1990)
Heard about it: The Knife - Silent Shout (2006)
New to me: Stan Kenton - City of Glass (1995)

-L- (here)
Love it: Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray (1992)
Heard about it: Lo'Jo - Au Cabaret Sauvage (2002)
New to me: Linx - Intuition (1981)

-M- (here and here)
Love it: Michael Mayer - Fabric 13 (2003)
Heard about it: Joe Meek and the Blue Men - I Hear a New World (1960)
New to me: The Moments - Love on a Two-Way Street (1997)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have not heard that DAF album, but I used to have the 12" single they did right after it (Der Mussolini + Der rauber und der prinz) which was brilliant.

I'm now tempted to buy the Alles Ist Gut album just to hear them again.

Anonymous said...

I gave in to temptation and got Alles Ist Gut from Amazon for just over a fiver.

I didn't realise that they only existed for little more than a year, but managed to knock out 4 albums.