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Thin Lizzy – Live At The BBC Box Set (Universal)
Description:
This incredible archive represents a great set of previously unreleased recordings in the Lizzy catalogue. The collection has been brought together by trawling the BBC archives, but also by inviting contributions from fans. The BBC had a habit of wiping tapes after they were broadcast which has meant that some of the Corporation’s output has been lost forever. However thanks to fans recording broadcasts at home a couple of gems have been reclaimed here for this set.
This collection brings together a raft of sessions and live recordings from throughout the band’s career. Included also is a DVD of the bands sought after appearances on Top of the Pops and the Old Grey Whistle Test a well as concerts from throughout the band’s career. This is a first for the band as these recordings have never been available in one place before. With comprehensive notes by Classic Rock’s Malcolm Dome who tells the story of the bands history at the BBC.
Bruce Springsteen – Bound For Glory (Left Field Media)
Description:
By mid 1972 the rock landscape was looking decidedly dull. The search for a new Beatles or a new Dylan to re-unite the Woodstock generation and their younger siblings had come to nothing and the natives were getting restless. So when word began to filter through of new-kid-on-the-block Bruce Springsteen breaking out of home city Asbury Park, New Jersey, and playing shows nationwide that reconfirmed audiences faith in the redemptive power of rock n roll, hope began to restore. Bruce had signed a recording deal with Columbia in mid-72 and had been working on his debut record since. Greetings From Asbury Park saw the light of day in early 73, and within the week Springsteen, with a little help from three of the soon to be named East Street Band, were performing their first ever radio broadcast, aired on Boston s WBCN FM. A quite remarkable performance ensued with Bruce and the boys in excellent humour and fine form as they played a terrific set, although remarkably including just one cut from Greetings. The show was an intimate affair without an audience but gave listeners their first glimpse into Springsteen’s infectious personality, enormous enthusiasm and unique sense of humour. It also drove home the message that here was an artist who could prove to be the new messiah, with songs that quite beggared belief. The second show featured on this disc is Bruce s very first broadcast from the Main Point venue in Bryn Mawr, just outside Philadelphia - the venue at which Bruce s most prestigious and highly regarded broadcast was made, the astonishing 1975 gig that has also recently been released. This April 1973 set differs widely from the January 73 show as the full band (drummer Vini Lopez joins proceedings) rock out, and comparisons with the largely acoustic Boston broadcast remain fascinating. That was pretty good, Bruce is heard to mutter as the final track of this broadcast draws to a close - providing the perfect understatement for the burgeoning talent heard maturing in these two broadcasts, and equally for the shows themselves, as just one listen to this remarkable CD will testify.
Thea Gilmore & Sandy Denny – Don’t Stop Singing (Island)
Description:
SANDY DENNY was the seminal English singer/songwriter, the first UK female singer/songwriter to secure a major record deal when she signed for Island in 1970. Prior to this she was a member of Fairport Convention, with whom she cut some of that band's most iconic songs. Denny recorded four hugely acclaimed albums for Island, found time for many innovative side-projects and duetted with Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's legendary fourth album, all before her tragically early death in 1978. Years after Sandy's passing, THEA GILMORE has blazed a fiercely independent trail since starting her recording career, which has seen her gather fans such as Bruce Springsteen and Joan Baez. The story behind "Don't Stop Singing" spans almost 33 years and 3 continents... After Sandy Denny's death, all of her belongings were shipped to Australia when husband Trevor Lucas moved back. It was in late 2007 that the writer and designer Phil Smee was commissioned to prepare the artwork for a commemorative box set of Sandy's BBC recordings. A major Denny fan himself, for this task he was given access to many of Sandy's remaining notebooks and general paperwork. Although by no means the first person to be granted this, but he was the first to notice what appeared to be lyrics for several more songs amongst the manuscripts. Further investigation between Smee, Island records and the guardians of Sandy's estate subsequently unearthed up to twenty sets of lyrics from the manuscripts. Thea Gilmore was soon identified as the artiste with the talent, integrity and the musical and personal empathy to bring these works to fruition. Her melodic abilities and, in particular, her quintessentially English crystalline voice have on occasions been compared to Sandy... The words themselves bear the trademark qualities that Sandy carried throughout her career. At times they are troubled - Sandy's restless nature and battling of her personal demons is well documented - but always honest, economical in style, never self pitying. `Don't Stop Singing' is a work of the rarest beauty.
Luke Haines - Nine and a Half Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and early '80s (Fantastic Plastic)
BBC Review:
On YouTube you’ll still find footage of the ceremonial unmasking of Kendo Nagasaki. A relic from the days when British wrestling formed a Saturday afternoon working-class ritual through ITV’s World of Sport, it involves a legendary wrestler who never spoke in public, his manager Gorgeous George, a pair of spooky contact lenses and the warm admiration of the crowd at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall. It all has a surrealist slapstick quality that sticks with you. So much so that Luke Haines, a proud child of the 1970s, has made an entire long-playing record based around its strange magic.
Nine and a Half Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and Early ‘80s is exactly what it says on the tin, and so much more. Namechecking virtually every wrestler familiar from those grainy broadcasts, it then takes wild imaginings about the lives and characters of the likes of Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Mark ‘Rollerball’ Rocco and Les Kellett on a mystical trip through a West Midlands where plumbers, Miss World, arcane sacraments and liver sausage sandwiches conjure a parallel universe based around the forearm smash and the transport caff. Those who have followed National Treasure Haines through his 20 years of barbed indie-glam baroque-pop with The Auteurs, Black Box Recorder, Baader-Meinhof and as a solo artist will know that he is a practiced excavator of a 1970s made of glitter-rock, unsolved child murders and terrorist groups. And fans won’t be at all surprised that his most ridiculous choice of subject matter yet has somehow produced, arguably, the best album he has ever made.
Picking a best song is somewhat self-defeating here; this is a perfect, 30-minute, 10-song album that demands to be treated as one long symphonic pop masterpiece. But some idea of the imagination and mischief at work is conveyed by Big Daddy Got a Casio VL-Tone, in which Haines proceeds to craft a synth-pop-meets-chamber-rock classic out of said primitive keyboard and a blackly comic contemplation of what might go through the mind of the corpulent wrestler (real name: Shirley Crabtree) if he had, indeed, made music with a Casio VL-Tone.
The album ends with its cast of heroes and their followers enjoying an eternal feast of grapple in the big Wolverhampton Civic Hall in the sky. For this listener, Nine and a Half Psychedelic Meditations… is, perhaps, a work of art about the ordinary person’s ability to reinvent themselves, and the sad fact that that achievement doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t spend most of their lives eating bad egg and chips in grim Midlands towns and being screamed at by psychopathic old ladies.
But Luke Haines is as slippery a customer as Kendo Nagasaki, and just as hard to unmask, so maybe it really is the result of watching wrestling on acid.
Various Artists - The Bridge School Concerts 25th Anniversary Edition (Warner Bros.)
Description:
This special and highly anticipated two-CD collection features unique live performances from many of the phenomenal artists who’ve performed at the beloved Annual Bridge School Benefit Concerts over the past 25 years. Some of the biggest names in music are included on The Bridge School Benefit Concerts - 25th Anniversary Edition, performing rare, acoustic versions of songs, never heard anywhere else, to benefit The Bridge School, a non-profit, innovative organization educating children with severe speech and physical impairments through the use of augmentative and alternative communication systems and assistive technology. This once-in-a-lifetime collection is sure to become a treasured artifact for generations to come. The two-CD set features exclusive performances from Sheryl Crow, Thom Yorke, Norah Jones, No Doubt, Willie Nelson, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, Sonic Youth, and more.
DRC Music – Kinshasa One Two (Warp Records)
BBC Review:
Kinshasa is a vast, sprawling and chaotic city with a glorious musical tradition. The capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo may have suffered from war and dictatorship, with the result that many live in poverty, eking out a living on the streets; but there’s also an energy and a wild optimism that is reflected in the sounds that can be heard across the city. Kinshasa was home to Franco, Africa’s greatest guitar hero, and is now famed for that rousing and remarkable disabled band, Staff Benda Bilili.
It’s only natural that the city would attract adventurous African music fan Damon Albarn, who arrived four years ago to work alongside local musicians with the Africa Express movement. His return to Kinshasa this summer was rather different. Accompanied by a collective of 10 producers, making up the DRC Music project, he spent five days in the city, recording this album as a benefit set for Oxfam.
Those involved include the French-African music specialist Marc Antoine; XL Recordings co-founder Richard Russell, who worked with the late Gil Scott-Heron; London-based producer Kwes; and hip hop producer Dan the Automator. They went about the sessions in a highly unusual way: instead of recording separately, they all worked together in the same place, as a commune, with most of the sessions held at a studio inside the French Cultural Institute. The French filmmakers Renault Barret and Florent de la Tullaye, responsible for the remarkable documentary about Staff Benda Bilili, also became involved – they explained what was going on to different Kinshasa musicians, and invited them along to the Institute. Says Albarn, "I realised that I was witnessing and being part of a whole new way of making music."
The resulting album is an intriguing mixture of the ancient and contemporary, with every track sounding different: electronica mixes with traditional African styles, reggae with funk and more. It starts with the most commercial and Western-sounding song, Hallo, which features Albarn and Kinshasa singer Nelly Liyemge on a cool, melodic piece that begins with echoing keyboard lines before a subtle blend of beats and wailing chanting are added. Then comes a blend of Congolese rumba, cha-cha, rock and hip hop on K-Town, featuring N’Gotshima and Bebson; and later, soulful vocals from Yende Bongongo grace the sturdy, gently driving Lourds.
Other highlights include pieces from Bokatola System, who use anything from thumb piano and whistles to clattering percussion. On the remarkable Ah Congo, they start with what sounds like a church service conducted to the sound of electronic beats, and are then joined by the edgy, growled, half-spoken vocals of Jupiter Bokondji, with a wash of effects added atop everything. Overall, this is an album that’s well worth checking out, especially as the proceeds go to help Oxfam’s work in DRC.
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