Alex Temple come on down:
>1970 -- The Firesign Theatre, _Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The
>Pliers_. Proof, if proof is needed, that words can do the exact same
>thing as music. It's full of cross-references, it doesn't really make
>"logical" sense, and yet somehow the transitions, changeups,
>recollections and recontextualizations are incredibly moving. I've
>really never heard anything else like this.
Excellent pick. My personal favorite by them is probably "I Think We're All
Bozos On This Bus", but this is an excellent album as well.
>1971 -- Gong, _Camembert Electrique_. I don't love this album, but I
>don't seem to have any 1971 albums that I really love. Still, it's a
>good one, and if you took off the interlude tracks it would be even
>better. I especially like "You Can't Kill Me."
Not even "Tago Mago"?
>1972 -- Franco Battiato, _Fetus_. I still need to get _Pollution_, but
>this is one of those albums that makes me feel instantly at peace.
>Check out those whooping synths on "Una Cellula"! I love it.
Yeah, "Fetus" and "whooping synths" pretty much go hand in hand. I like
"Energia" a lot. (It actually reminds me a lot of some music they used to
play on Sesame Street accompanying a short film about the making of milk.
Man, I'd love to know who wrote that song; it's incredible.)
>1975 -- Henry Cow, _In Praise of Learning_. "Living in the Heart of
>the Beast" is still the best composition to come out of the whole RIO
>movement, The End.
I think it's a shame that the current issue of IPOL doesn't include "Lovers of
Gold". I actually like that track a lot.
>1976 -- Gentle Giant, _Interview_. Probably not my favorite Gentle
>Giant album, but I had to fit them in somewhere, and I do think this
>one gets more flak than it deserves. Reggae in 5/8 with xylophones? A
>super-funky prepared piano solo? Those alone represent everything I
>like about this band.
Interview and Acquiring the Taste are probably my two favorite GG albums,
probably because they're the most experimental. I especially like "Design" on
Interview, and everything on Acquiring the Taste except for Plain Truth, which
sucks, is good. Neither of them are exactly typical Gentle Giant, of course-
for that, I go for "The Power and the Glory" and the live album.
>1977 -- Ornette Coleman, _Dancing In Your Head_. It's maniacally
>repetitive, and the two main tracks are alternate takes of each other,
>but I don't care -- it's completely addictive. It sounds like Ornette
>Coleman channeling a Moroccan shawm player backed by Beefheart's Magic
>Band covering the Talking Heads.
I haven't really heard much more modern Ornette, though I keep meaning to
check out "Science Fiction". I did hear "Skies of America", which I liked a
lot. Does this album have James "Blood" Ulmer on it?
>1980 -- Aksak Maboul, _Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits_. A flawed album,
>but one that completely rearranged my brain five years ago. I'm not
>going to argue with that.
Is this the one with "Cinema" on it? Because that _is_ an excellent record.
>1981 -- Oingo Boingo, _Only a Lad_. When I first got this album, I
>listened to it four times within 24 hours. I listened to it so much
>that it was permanently running through my head and I had to stop for
>months. Later Boingo albums are more emotionally resonant, but this is
>easily the tightest and most individual in terms of songwriting.
I never really got into Boingo much. I respect them as songwriters, but they
never really clicked with me.
>1982 -- Kate Bush, _The Dreaming_. An old favorite, but there's
>nothing else like it. Cryptic, terrifyingly intense, vocally
>acrobatic, with that 80s production I love.
I haven't really heard this, but I did really enjoy "Hounds of Love" and "The
Sensual World".
>1985 -- Scritti Politti, _Cupid & Psyche 85_. This is another year
>where there aren't really albums that I adore, but I find it hard to
>resist shiny, complicated synthpop with lyrics about hermeneutics, so
>there you go.
I've been hearing a lot of buzz about the new "Scritti Politti" album, but
honestly Green Gartside occupies the same ground as Stephin Merritt for me;
just not my cup of tea at all.
>1988 -- Cardiacs, _A Little Man and a House and the Whole World
>Window_. This album is the only thing I've heard that picks up where
>Gentle Giant left off, though of course it's much sillier, punkier and
>Spike Jonesier. Still, great chamber-rock composition, complex enough
>to listen to endlessly without getting bored and catchy as hell, too.
>"Whole World Window" is practically an instruction manual on how to use
>cheesiness in a subversive and emotionally fucked-up way.
I'm a really big fan of "Sing to God". Their other stuff is good, too, but
for me it doesn't hold a candle to "Sing to God". I just wish their stuff was
easier to get at reasonable prices in the States.
--
"Flames are discouraged, except for those which quote famous (or
not-so- famous) Stooge lines. For example, it would be acceptable to
threaten to 'tear out your tonsils' or to 'gouge your eyes out'."
-
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