From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V8 #473 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, December 22 1999 Volume 08 : Number 473 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Magnet Review [Joel Mullins ] Re: One-LP wonders? [fartachu ] Louder than tanks on the highway [Natalie Jacobs ] Re: One-LP wonders? ["Gene Hopstetter, Jr." ] Subject: Re: One-LP wonders ["Marc Holden" ] Re: I bought myself a liarbird [dmw ] Re: One-LP wonders? [fartachu ] net weenie question [Aaron Mandel ] Re: completely out of the blue [Michael R Godwin ] Re: Subject: Re: One-LP wonders [Michael R Godwin ] Re: One-LP wonders? [dmw ] Re: One-LP wonders- that reminds me [lj lindhurst ] Re: Subject: Re: One-LP wonders [Aaron Mandel ] Re: One-LP wonders? [fartachu ] finer points of kittywinder, honeycreeper, dog & pony show [dmw ] Re: One-album wonders/ Shriekback [digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Di] Top Ten Lists [The Great Quail ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 03:06:33 -0800 From: Joel Mullins Subject: Magnet Review ROBYN HITCHCOCK Jewels for Sophia Robyn Hitchcock has been making music for so long that he's rapidly approaching the dreaded "elder statesman of rock" status, a role that undoubtedly makes him wince since he's not getting any richer as a result. Still, cult stardom and an impressive discography of solo albums -- as well as records with the Soft Boys and Egyptians -- do afford him certain luxuries, not the least of which is his current recording contract. Now, hot on the heels of the poorly distributed Jonathan Demme film/engaging concert record, Storefront Hitchcock, comes the umpteenth Hitchcock effort. In some ways, Hitchcock's prolific nature works against him. While it feels like his last studio album just came out, it's actually been three years since we've gotten new material from the man with the lightbulb head. With assistance from friends like Peter Buck, Jon Brion, Grant Lee Phillips, and the Young Fresh Fellows, Hitchcock presents us with yet another excellent batch of surrealist pop tunes. Coming full circle, Jewels for Sophia also reunites Hitchcock with Soft Boy Kimberly Rew, who Hitchcock hasn't worked with since 1981's Black Snake Diamond Role. The music? With an emphasis on rock (hard, soft and folk), troubadour Hitchcock exploits all aspects of his unusual character. Verdict? Hitchcock is more himself than ever. Love him or leave him alone. [Warner Bros.] - -Mitch Myers ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 07:53:41 -0500 From: fartachu Subject: Re: One-LP wonders? when we last left our heroes, Eb exclaimed: >>I have Swallow's album ("Blow", right?) >Yup. Blatant Cocteaus ripoff, but still, something keeps me from getting >rid of it. I guess it's probably the guitar textures, which are frequently >more dissonant than the Cocteaus'. yeah, that's one thing i like about them too. technically, there was another swallow album (_blowback_), but it doesn't count since it was a remix record and a "temporary" 4AD release. it is, however, one of the few remix albums which does not suck. swallow did release an EP in 1994 called "hush" on rough trade (i found a copy in japan the same year), but that was the last we ever heard from them. here's one from the ectoside of things: pamela golden. she released one record, _happens all the time_, in 1991. with the likes of studio sluts larry fast, jerry marotta and tony levin doing session work, you can imagine what it might have sounded like. then, poof! nothing. sad, really. woj ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 09:11:26 -0500 (EST) From: Natalie Jacobs Subject: Louder than tanks on the highway > Avast, ye scurvy knave! Buy Mummer forthwith! 'Tis surely your very soul > that hangs in the balance! Yes, yes! Mummer was the first XTC record I bought, back when I was a callow youth of 16. "Beating of Hearts" is one of those very few tracks which elicited a "Holy shit!" response upon hearing it for the first time (others include Elvis C.'s live version of "Lipstick Vogue," Nick Drake's "Cello Song," and NMH's "Ghost"). The bonus tracks on the CD are also excellent, but I'd recommend programming them out and listening to them seperately, as they don't really fit with the mood of the rest of the album. > I have to agree with Natalie here. Certainly with many XTC albums, you > have to ask numerous questions, such as, "To what degree is this XTC > album better than all other albums produced by anyone else?" ...and > "Why did I buy other albums *before* buying this one?" Etc., etc. > > John "I KID BECAUSE I LOVE KIDDING" The Hedgester Ha ha, or "arf arf" as Chairman Partridge would say. Me and my crack team of Hyperbole Police are on to you, buddy! (We have a special alarm that goes off any time someone says a band is "second only to the Beatles.") So watch your back... :) n. (the third policeman) p.s. Do I get an award for using the word "callow"? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 08:26:37 -0600 From: "Gene Hopstetter, Jr." Subject: Re: One-LP wonders? >Subject: Re: One-LP wonders? Mmm, good thread started by JH3. Eb said: >...Stump, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Pianosaurus Those are three I'd mention, too. I've always lumped Pianosaurus and Stump together for some reason. And as for Mrs. O'Hara, why oh why can't we have more from her? Here's my list: Tintern Abbey (beat you to it, Terrence ;-), Spot 1019, Ed Haynes, German Shepherds, Comus, Bushido, Animal Time, P. Catham, Confessor, etc.. Wouldn't have said no to a few more albums from Cardinal. And where's that triple-lp rock opera from Fred Lane I've always dreamed of? The flip side of this thread is, I guess, bands which you wish would have stopped while they were ahead of the game. Like, if the Shamen had disbanded after their amazing "Drop" album, they'd be legends in my mind. But then they discovered MDMA and techno and it was pretty much the end for them. NP: Pram, "Meshes" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 08:18:45 -0700 From: "Marc Holden" Subject: Subject: Re: One-LP wonders THE Pink Floyd Sex Pistols I figured the Floyd mention was bordering on Robyn content since I've seen him play "Arnold Layne", "Astronomy Domine", and I seem to recall "Lucifer Sam", but that might just be wishful thinking--the espresso has not hit my brain yet. I know that I saw him play "Octopus" (Syd Barrett) once, though. Keep out of trouble and happy holidays to you all, Marc n.p.--Residents--Santa Dog '99 >Subject: Re: One-LP wonders? JH3: >Can anybody out there think of any bands that they really >mourn the passing of who only put out ONE album, or maybe >just a single or two, before breaking up and having all their >members disappear completely? >I'm talking about bands that >you thought at the time could've become a genuine obsession >for you if they'd only stuck around... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 10:21:45 -0500 (EST) From: dmw Subject: Re: I bought myself a liarbird On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, Miles Goosens wrote: > At 08:08 PM 12/21/1999 -0500, Aaron Mandel wrote: ... > that Barry Andrews had been handling a lot of the O&G vocals. ... > Speaking of those positional charts, on JAM SCIENCE, they've very specific > on who sings what -- Marsh is credited with lead vox on every track except > for Andrews' turns on "My Careful Hands" and "Hubris." OIL & GOLD is a lot > more dicey in this respect. There are songs I could swear Marsh was > singing, but he doesn't appear on the song credits on some of > them. Whether this is omission (maybe fallout over his exit from the > band?) or really a case of Andrews singing instead, I don't know. The only > O&G tracks for which Marsh is credited with lead vocals are "Malaria," > "Everything That Rises Must Converge," and "Health and Knowledge and Wealth > and Power." And since Andrews is specifically credited with (IMO very > Marsh-like) lead vocals on "Hammerheads," I can only conclude that there's > less of a difference in their styles than one might think. for what it's worth: i'm unclear on the precise details of marsh's departure, how rancourous it was/wasn't. but i had the great privilege of seeing shriekback on the "swim upstream" tour (spring 85?) very shortly after marsh's departure. i took careful notes, and can report that the 8(!) person band ripped through virtually all of _oil..._ definitely including "converge," (andrews' intro: "this a song about the death of the Newtonian notion of physics...and it rocks like a bitch!") "health..." and "malaria." "working on the ground" was conspicuous by its absence; i don't think much marsh-penned material was present. one album wonders: sub obsessession, but i was quite fond of velvet elvis (mitch easter produced roots rock). do the dirt merchants count? there was a little e.p. in addition to the record proper. that band with glenn phillips and the male songwriter from swimming pool q''s. the melting hopefuls. (again, lp + ep) ... i'm sure i'll think of more later... mary margaret o'hara sang on some record that came out last year, didn't she? - -- d. - - oh no, you've just read mail from doug = dmw@radix.net - get yr pathos - - www.pathetic-caverns.com -- books, flicks, tunes, etc. = reviews - - www.fecklessbeast.com -- angst, guilt, fear, betrayal! = guitar pop ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 10:30:21 -0500 From: fartachu Subject: Re: One-LP wonders? when we last left our heroes, dmw exclaimed: >do the dirt merchants count? there >was a little e.p. in addition to the record proper. if they do, then kittywinder does too. >mary margaret o'hara sang on some record that came out last year, didn't >she? yup. band from toronto called the henrys. forget the title of the record though. woj ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 10:47:38 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: net weenie question does anyone have the mp3s of the 11/2/99 show that were going around? i'm missing some of them and, well, it's real slow in the office today. your donation helps. a ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 15:54:42 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: completely out of the blue http://www.voicenet.com/~ktappe/wb/ claims to be a complete WB animation database, but it doesn't include the words 'measles' or 'spots'. This is the closest I have found: B298 PATIENT PORKY 19400824, LOONEY TUNES CHAR: PORKY PIG;BUGS BUNNY PROTOTYPE (CAMEO) DIR: ROBERT CLAMPETT NOTE: COLORIZED IN 1992. ADAPTED FROM BOOK "THE PAINS CAME." BUGS BUNNY PROTOTYPE HAS CAMEO AS PROUD PAPA SYNOP: PORKY GOES TO HOSPITAL WITH TUMMY ACHE, GETS "HELPED" BY ONE OF THE PATIENTS POSING AS A DOCTOR I wonder if it really is a WB cartoon, or whether it might be one of those Harman - Ising things? - - Mike Godwin On Mon, 20 Dec 1999, lj lindhurst wrote: > Now surely one of you guys knows the answer to this question... > > I'm looking for a cartoon classic, and I'm not exactly sure what the > name of it is, or if it was a Looney Tunes, Merry Melodies, or what. > The cartoon involves what appears to be a very early version of Porky > the Pig. He's young and doesn't want to go to school, so he pretends > to have measles (and maybe even paints some little dots on his > face-?). He keeps shouting, "MEASLES! MEASLES!" over and over again > in this high-pitched voice, and he even sings a little song that > goes, "I've got the mea-sles, I've got the mea-sles!" Everyone is > afraid of him and runs away. > > I have been dying to see this cartoon again, and it's been driving me > nuts! Does anyone know what it is, and how I might get a copy of it? > > thanks thanks thanks... > l > > > > > > > > > > > > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > LJ Lindhurst > White Rabbit Graphic Design > http://www.w-rabbit.com > NYC ljl@w-rabbit.com > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 16:10:48 +0000 (GMT) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: Subject: Re: One-LP wonders On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, Marc Holden wrote: > THE Pink Floyd Nice one, Marc. > Sex Pistols Wasn't there a soundtrack of the film, including such dainties as "Frigging in the Rigging"? Or don't soundtracks count? My contributions: Tomorrow - "Tomorrow" Keith West, Junior, Twink and Steve Howe on tip-top psychedelic form. Admittedly Twink went on to the Pink Fairies and the Pretty Things, but I think the others are all more or less forgotten, n'est-ce pas? (-: Stud - "Stud" Great jazz-rock and acoustic trio featuring Charlie McCracken and John Wilson (formerly in Rory Gallagher's band Taste) and Jim Cregan from Blossom Toes. Cregan went on to a sort of career in Family and Cockney Rebel, but what happened to that excellent rhythm section? Ken Nordine - "Colors" Pavlov's Dog - "Pampered Menial" Absolutely stunning manic orchestral rock. (Yes I know they made a second album, but if you don't count that - and it didn't have Siegfried Carver on it, so why should you? - that only makes one record). - - Mike Godwin PS John's Children ... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 11:25:15 -0500 (EST) From: dmw Subject: Re: One-LP wonders? On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, fartachu wrote: > when we last left our heroes, dmw exclaimed: > > >do the dirt merchants count? there > >was a little e.p. in addition to the record proper. > > if they do, then kittywinder does too. how so? _scream of the weak_ _livre de monstres_ both full-length, no? - -- d., thinking that bands with two fine albums and perpetual obscurity therafter would make too long a list to be enjoyable. - - oh no, you've just read mail from doug = dmw@radix.net - get yr pathos - - www.pathetic-caverns.com -- books, flicks, tunes, etc. = reviews - - www.fecklessbeast.com -- angst, guilt, fear, betrayal! = guitar pop ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 11:47:48 -0500 From: lj lindhurst Subject: Re: One-LP wonders- that reminds me What ever happened to The Sugarplastic? Their first album is AWESOME (sounds so much like XTC that when I first got it I had to repeatedly keep checking the liner notes)...but I never saw another record. (...and I'm STILL looking for that cartoon! I'm sure you guys could help me if it had some kind of obscure fucking sound engineer from 1973 in it!!!) l p.s., last night I dreamed I went camping with Hank Williams III! And he brought me a crockpot full of venison chili-- and he plugged the crockpot into an outlet at the base of a tree! ******************************** LJ Lindhurst White Rabbit Graphic Design http://www.w-rabbit.com NYC ljl@w-rabbit.com ******************************** "My dreams all involve combing my hair." --Principal Skinner ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 11:46:32 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: Subject: Re: One-LP wonders On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, Michael R Godwin wrote: > Ken Nordine - "Colors" there are several albums of Nordine's "word jazz", and he didn't go on to obscurity by a long shot... he had a weekly program on american public radio (and come to think of it, i believe you can buy even more Nordine from them if you're inclined) and did voices for a few animated ads in the 80s. okay, voicing advertisement animation is pretty close to obscurity, but once you get to recognize his voice, you can't miss it. i would love to hear if there exists more than one record by: Memluks, the Stickmen, God And The State, Cuppa Joe, the Names who did "Calcutta", Mood Six, Househunters... a ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 11:56:44 -0500 From: fartachu Subject: Re: One-LP wonders? >> if they do, then kittywinder does too. > >how so? > >_scream of the weak_ >_livre de monstres_ > >both full-length, no? scream's only six songs. that's not full-length in my book... woj ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 12:01:33 -0500 (EST) From: dmw Subject: finer points of kittywinder, honeycreeper, dog & pony show On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, fartachu wrote: > scream's only six songs. that's not full-length in my book... > > woj conceded. thought it was longer; i may have been mentally appending b-sides. - - oh no, you've just read mail from doug = dmw@radix.net - get yr pathos - - www.pathetic-caverns.com -- books, flicks, tunes, etc. = reviews - - www.fecklessbeast.com -- angst, guilt, fear, betrayal! = guitar pop ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 12:08:25 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: One-LP wonders- that reminds me On Wed, 22 Dec 1999, lj lindhurst wrote: > What ever happened to The Sugarplastic? Their first album is AWESOME > (sounds so much like XTC that when I first got it I had to repeatedly > keep checking the liner notes)...but I never saw another record. wow; in boston, it's harder to find a bargain bin *not* containing their second album than one that does. if anything, it's even more like XTC (and, to repeat the singer's claim about their 'real' influences, early Talking Heads) than Radio Jejune is. looks like it's out of print, though. www.gemm.com has some for cheap. a ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 12:12:55 -0500 (EST) From: normal@grove.ufl.edu Subject: Re: One-LP wonders? On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, JH3 wrote: > Can anybody out there think of any bands that they really > mourn the passing of who only put out ONE album, or maybe > just a single or two, before breaking up and having all their > members disappear completely? Tintern Abbey put out one great single (Beeside/Vacuum Cleaner) and was never seen nor heard again. I don't know how good an album by them would've been, because singles can be deceiving. Gene, I was going to post this last night, but put it off so I could look up... The Poets. Yet another staple of the BritPsych comps. Everything I've heard by them I liked. They only had one LP, right? I'm rather fond of the Purple Outside's only album, Mystery Lane. Near as I can tell, I'm the only one who's heard of it. I know local stuff is technically disqualified, but Congratulations (aka Congratulations Fruit aka The Congratulations Fleet) really impressed me. THey had a semi-authentic* psych-pop/krautrock sound and a real high-energy show (complete with costumes and a light show). The album didn't live up to their live performances, though. *: Much like OTC or Apples in Stereo. It sounds like late 1960s, but it's an iconic representation. They didn't _really_ make stuff like "Seems So" or "I have been floated" back then, but it sounds more like that era than a lot of authentic stuff does. Terrence Marks Unlike Minerva (a comic strip) http://www.unlikeminerva.com normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 14:08:34 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: One-LP wonders Gene: >Spot 1019 Spot 1019 had more than one album. I think they even had *three*. I know they released albums on both Pitch-A-Tent and Frontier.... Terrence: >I'm rather fond of the Purple Outside's only album, Mystery Lane. Near as >I can tell, I'm the only one who's heard of it. Oh sure, I remember that record. Screaming Trees spinoff, on New Alliance. I guess New Alliance is entirely dead now...it's a shame, because they released several interesting records (Dos, Roger Miller, Crimony, particularly the aforementioned Sproton Layer...). Not to mention the early Husker Du/Minutemen stuff which was later reissued on SST. LJ: >What ever happened to The Sugarplastic? Their first album is AWESOME >(sounds so much like XTC that when I first got it I had to repeatedly >keep checking the liner notes)...but I never saw another record. Well, as Aaron pointed out, there are actually *two* albums. The debut (Radio Jejune) is on a small L.A.-based label called Sugar Fix, and isn't real easy to find. Radio Jejune isn't quite as derivative as the second album, but I like the second one a lot more. Go figger. I'm still in sporadic touch with Ben of the Sugarplastic. He has an entire new album recorded, and wants to find a record deal. He is absolutely *thrilled* with the material, and tells me it's his all-time favorite album (by *anyone*). Ha! Gotta love his enthusiasm. The new material is apparently a lot more "psychedelic," and *doesn't* sound much like XTC. I have a tape of demos somewhere.... Unfortunately, he doesn't seem real savvy, regarding labels, the biz and that type of thing. I suggested a few labels which might be a good fit for his band (Flydaddy was my first choice...I think I also mentioned Mammoth and Bar/None), and he didn't know a thing about those companies' rosters. Maybe I should manage him. ;) And yes, sadly, the DGC album seems to be out of print. Certainly, CDNow doesn't stock it. But do note: Ben always says his prime influence is the Kinks, not Talking Heads.... >p.s., last night I dreamed I went camping with Hank Williams III! >And he brought me a crockpot full of venison chili-- and he plugged >the crockpot into an outlet at the base of a tree! Living with the GQ is clearly driving you over the brink. Eb 5) PJ Harvey/To Bring You My Love ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 11:32:25 +0100 From: digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Re: One-album wonders/ Shriekback >Can anybody out there think of any bands that they really >mourn the passing of who only put out ONE album, or maybe >just a single or two, before breaking up and having all their >members disappear completely? And not just bands that were >"pretty good," or some local band that you thought were interesting >when you saw them in some club. I'm talking about bands that >you thought at the time could've become a genuine obsession >for you if they'd only stuck around... Stone Roses doesn't quite qualify (they SHOULD have only done the one album, then all disappear...). There was a band from the US Southeast called Zeitgeist that qualifies, though. >Meanwhile, lemme toss out the names of some other (semi) one-shot >favorites, even though they fail your stated criteria: Brian Eno & David >Byrne, Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey, Andy Partridge & Harold Budd, Eno & >Cale, what Eb said! Especially Eno & Cale! I'd also add Nusrat fateh Ali Khan and Michael brook (the remix album doesn't count, surely). And the proggie in me adds MacDonald and Giles! Everybody got all lined up over Shriekback: >Speaking of those positional charts, on JAM SCIENCE, they've very specific >on who sings what -- Marsh is credited with lead vox on every track except >for Andrews' turns on "My Careful Hands" and "Hubris." OIL & GOLD is a lot >more dicey in this respect. even so, they're still loads olf fun to read. 'jp8 Hoover of Christ', anyone? >Eb, who never heard the entire La's album but suspects he would be >ambivalent (I did hear the Cast album, however) which one? They've released at least two! James (whose Christmas wish is that Jam Science will one day be released on CD) PS - it seems like only last week I quoted Shriekback during the great "it isn't really the Cavern club" debate! James Dignan___________________________________ You talk to me Deptmt of Psychology, Otago University As if from a distance ya zhivu v' 50 Norfolk Street And I reply. . . . . . . . . . Dunedin, New Zealand with impressions chosen from another time steam megaphone (03) 455-7807 (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 17:45:35 -0500 From: The Great Quail Subject: Top Ten Lists You all know how obsessive I am. You don't get one list, you get many, oh yes, including a pretentiously annotated classical list and a half-assed list of honorable mentions. Delete now to preserve a sense of sanity. Rock, studio albums: 1. "Jewels for Sophia," Robyn Hitchcock 2. "Apple Venus Volume One," XTC 3. "Midnight Vultures," Beck 4. "Hours...," David Bowie 5. "Mule Variations," Tom Waits 6. "Back on Top Again," Van Morrison 7. "Soft Bulliten," Flaming Lips 8. "Risin' Outlaw" Hank Williams III 9. "When the Pawn," Fiona Apple 10. "Cobra Phase Milky Quail," Stereolab Honorable Mentions: * "J-Tull.com," Jethro Tull. For an old group releasing an album that was still pretty good, unlike, say, Yes or The Moody Blues. * "Hampton Comes Alive," Phish, for the best Live album of the year Classical, "new" compositions: 1. The Easter Triduum, James MacMillan. (Osmo Vänskä, BBC Scottish Symphony; Bis.) Three works -- a symphony, an English horn concerto, and a cello concerto -- spread out over two CDs, MacMillan writes the kind of liturgical music that would have kept me in church: harrowing as well as strangely beautiful, and always full of motion. 2. "Dracula," Philip Glass. (Kronos Qt; Elektra Nonesuch.) A score for the long-unscored 1931 Dracula. While immediately recognizable as Glass, it has a dark beauty that is rare for his work. 3. "Asyla," Thomas Ades (Simon Rattle; EMI.) More craziness from Britain's most promising composer, who gave the world a blow-job hum-aria in the opera "Powder Her Face." Still a bit unfocused, but nothing quite sounds like Ades: energetic, surprising, and challenging. "Asyla," is the plural of Asylum, by the way. I did not know that. 4. "Twelve Psalms of Repentance," Alfred Schnittke. (Swedish Radio Choir; ECM.) Hands down, this is the creepiest liturgical music for a choir you can find. Like listening to Taverner on acid. Not satanic-chanting-creepy; but more subtle, more off-putting, like what they sing in a Catholic church on Venus. 5. "Songs of Orpheus," David Volker Kirchner. (Ensemble Villa; MDG Gold.) Dark, sparse, moving from periods of spooky quiet to sudden dense thickets of energy. I am sure, somewhere, a very cultured German serial killer has this on his discman. Classical, general: 1. Sequenzas I - XIII, Luciano Berio (Ensemble InterContemporain; DG 20/21.) A modern classic, and one of the most important releases in the last few years. Simply put, each sequenza takes a solo instrument and plays the fucking shit out of it. Berio writes atonal music that's fun to listen to, and what he does to that poor harp...! 2. Ten Sonatas for Violin & Piano, Beethoven. (Claude & Pamela Frank; Music Masters.) Both this humble set and the high-profile set by Anne-Sophie Mutter were released in 1999. This one is surprisingly better -- father and daughter run through these works with a blistering energy and yet sensitive to every nuance; playing marvelously off each other, they manage to still sound completely spontaneous. The "Kreutzer" sonata is a revelation, and its energy blows away Mutter's more refined reading. 3. "Historical Recordings," Leon Kirchner. (Sony.) I read about this in fanfare, and I fell immediately in love. A student of Schoenberg and Sessions, Kirchner's music is complex, largely atonal, but very engaging. Like a more friendly Eliot Carter. You can put it on to sound intelligent; but you won't make everyone run away from you. 4. "1898/Music for Renaissance Intruments," Mauricio Kagel. (DG 20/21.) Crazy music! One piece has an untrained children's choir that laughs and sings heartily over rather dire sounding music, and the other piece takes renaissance instruments and plays a fractured modern piece with them, sounding like a madhouse symphony orchestra from Elizabethan England. 5. Glass/Adams Violin Concertos (Houston Symphony, McDuffie -- violin; Telarc) McDuffie holds his own over Gidon Kremer's earlier interpretations. Both pieces -- not at all similar, as one might expect from violin concertos from Glass and Adams -- are played with energy, grace, and vision. If you want an introduction to modern minimal-influenced orchestral music, this is the disc! 6. The Five Piano Concertos, Beethoven. (Rattle, Brendel -- violin; Phillips.) What you would expect from Brendel and Rattle -- wonderful readings of Beethoven's difficult masterpieces. 7. String quartets 3-6, Geroge Rochberg. (Concord Qt; New World.) A welcome re-release of Rochberg's late quartets. At the time, he shocked people with his return to tonality -- it's hard to believe, listening to these, that people thought tonality was played out! 8. Piano Sontas 1-3, Karol Szymanowski (Raymond Clarke, piano; Minerva.) Very dense, rambling piano works from this late-Romantic Polish composer. Like Chopin emerging from a K-hole. LJ thinks it sounds like the trolley from Mr. Roger's neighborhood slowly going crazy. 9. Complete String Quartets, John Zorn. (Tzaddik.) The weirdest things in the world can be done with a string quartet. Four very brainy, energetic, dissonant, and fractured quartets, some based on S&M, others on death, and one on Tex-Avery cartoons. 10. "Four^5," John Cage. (Arditti Quartet; Mode.) Speaking of weird string quartets, this one is joined by a trombone. It goes . . . odd places, often quietly. Opera: 1. "Le Grande Macabre," Gyorgy Ligeti (Salonen Esa-Pekka, Sony.) The English version of this manic opera, set in a Brueghel painting on the eve of the Apocalypse. Ligeti has genius and humor to burn, and this opera is unforgettable -- Death as a menacing drunkard, a chorus of car horns, a lunatic chief of secret police sung by a coloratura soprano, two lesbians singing a love aria in a coffin.... 2. "St. Francis of Assissi," Messaien. (Kent Nagano, DG 20/21.) Messiaen's five-hour meditation on God, filled with mesmerizing music and scored bird-calls. 3. "The CIVIL warS Act V: Rome Section," Philip Glass (Dennis Davies; Elektra Nonesuch.) *Finally!* this is released! Glass' forth opera, with narration by Wilson and Laurie Anderson. None of it makes any sense, but it sounds lovely. 4. "The Consul," Gian Carlo Menotti (Richard Hickox, Chandos.) An English-language opera about betrayal in a police state. Why oh why is Menotti not more popular? 5. "The Rake's Progress," Igor Stravinsky. (John Eliot Gardiner, DG.) I am not overly fond of this opera, but Gardiner brings it to life with an amazing cast. - --Quail +---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ The Great Quail, K.S.C. (riverrun Discordian Society, Kibroth-hattaavah Branch) For fun with postmodern literature, New York vampires, and Fegmania, visit Sarnath: http://www.rpg.net/quail "The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven." --Psalms 105:40 (Also see Exodus 16:13 and Numbers 11:31-34 for more starry wisdom) ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V8 #473 *******************************