John Fahey - Live in Tasmania (1981)

Album Notes to Live in Tasmania - John Fahey
TAK-7089 (Chrysalis) 1981
John and I were flying somewhere between Melbourne & Sydney & Perth. A long flight and it was delayed due to the outback haze. Flying Devils were at our heels...We were scared, so we asked the stewardess for some beers. She was scared too, so she had a beer with us. Brought us more. It was, it was, it was...
John and I got definitely drunk, definitely charged and rapping freely about whatever seemed timely, especially the stewardess passing out because of the passing Macleayasaurasis. I don't quite remember the complete idioscopic sequence but it went from Tasmanian Devils, Buggs Bunny to Tasmanian Angst und Scienheit so far from everywhere. There in the Outback and then WHAM, Idea!! Let's do a live recorded concert in Tasmania. So much better than...
Well folks, the free thoughts were flowing more than the beer. (That's mighty fast in the down-under) and pretty soon the attack plan was formulated.
A call to Stefan Markovitch the owner of Hobart's (Tasmania's Capitol) Discurio Record store and a lover and sometime promoter of accoustic guitar (even Stefan Grossmannn!!!!)(!?) and jazz, who loved the idea of a concert in his very esoteric home town...but who just couldn't see covering the expenses.
Continuing, undaunted, a phone call was placed to Festival Records, Takoma's Australian representative who telexed the U.S.A. and to everyone's surprise the answer was a resounding YES! (but to what question?) (Are we in our Einheit for sicher?)
Yes! they sayeth, "An album to be recorded live in Tasmania seemed commercially viable to the POWERS THAT BE (OR DO THEY?) and we were off and running.
Stefan (Markovitch) booked the university hall in Hobart, and before we knew it we were on a submarine for Tasmania (with Fahey's wife, Melody McBad).
The entire deal was four days in the making (I am such a genius) there we were at Hobart University making recording history. The first recording by an international artist in Tasmania. Well, with only two days promotion we had a full house and a dream audience who were there to hear FAHEY and make it all work. John was on. The tapes sounded great on playback. There are some moments such as on "Waltzing Matilda" that are simply brilliant and then there's the remarkable Railroad Song, Indian-Pacific which Fahey traveled. (Fahey's other buiness is Railroad stocks.) This is the first time that Fahey has been sufficiently satisfied to approve a live recording and I am proud to have been involved.
In the prospect that I can't wait for this record's release, I should like to say that I sincerely hope (Hoffung) that the enjoyment you derive from this album is equal to the joy I had in producing it.
Peter Noble
Sydney, Australia 15/10/80

"Detractors have dismissed this album as a piece of ephemeral froth" HOW COULD U! LOOK AT THE KANGAS

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Beck - One Foot in the Grave (1994)

Beck's follow up to Mellow Gold's anti-commercial pop/junk soundscape, One Foot in the Grave. An acoustic anti-pop/junk soundscape recorded at Calvin Johnson's, effectively Peel-Session-ing his songs, or stripping them down and exposing them. I like it because there's no room for Beck's eclectic dada trickery, only his eclectic dada songwriting. Unlike the other eccentric indie pop hipsters he surrounds himself with, he's jaded enough to call the world a Holiday (the cigarette, it transpires), bro enough to drink beer and talk about Satan (sorry Wrens, he makes you sound like emascu-rock), and humble enough to admit that he'll walk around the house loudly when he's lonely so as to break the silence. The arrangements might remind me too much of those he's mimicking in places, but he betters them overall if only because of that admirable mix of post-beat hipster mockery, bro-ish bluntness and relatability, and Jonathan Richman-like sincerity and loserishness. I call it his second best.

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Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas (1989)

1. Paris, Texas 2:57

2. Brothers 2:07

3. Nothing Out There 1:35

4. Canción Mixteca 4:17

5. No Safety Zone 1:55

6. Houston in Two Seconds 2:07

7. She's Leaving the Bank 6:02

8. On the Couch 1:32

9. I Knew These People 8:43

10. Dark Was the Night 2:52

Last one for the night! That feeling when you click that one of your favourite movies (top 5, I think!) has an incredible soundtrack

Based on Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson, Cooder's acoustic score I dunno feels around (Nothing Out There), sometimes finding something (Canción Mixteca) and when it does so still feels because the lost pieces are moving and the movie is just so sad. I think if I found it without having seen the movie I'd still love it because it just conveys all that, although the spoken part (I Knew These People) would probably confuse me. The movie's cool 'cause everything's aimless and inconsequential for a while and then it's nostalgic but then it looks underneath that confused nostalgia and the whole thing unravels into a mess. I saw it when I was real young and didn't get slow films but I still found it moving! Although melodies come together and it feels like there's a purpose for a bit, you can sense things unravelling a few tracks in but it's still sad when it does that and it makes you glare at the nice songs like they lied to you- Canción Mixteca makes me kinda sad now. Also I like having the spoken part 'cause it's one of my favourite movie scenes ever


I love this record but man it bums me out


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BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Paddy Kingsland) - Fourth Dimension (1973)

Early electronic music (with some acoustic accompaniment; guitar, drums, etc.) that sounds melodic rather than consisting primarily of unstructured or atonal noise. This compilation covers some of Paddy Kingsland's contributions to the music of various BBC radio and TV shows. Because every post I make is doomed to be related to video games, I first discovered a couple of these tunes due to their inclusion in surreal indie RPG Space Funeral, which I also recommend.

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Recording courtesy of Dinosaur Gardens.