July 27, 2011: Yesness

Yes' Relayer. Excellent artwork.

Yes: yes.  I think the music speaks for itself this week. I played Brian Eno's new album this week again and I will likely play more next week since my vinyl copy just arrived from Enoshop.

Neat little Robot News this week, another step.

Robots have mastered human techniques and move on to messianic feats

I thought I was going to play Souljazz Orchestra's Kapital in response to silly debt-ceiling drama. I thought better of it and remembered that the best response to this stuff is Nonsense. Accordingly I chose Grasshopper and Toad from also from Manifesto.

I just added this picture because it is brilliant. How "put on" do you reckon these faces are

?

I realize that Amy Winehouse passed recently. I actually picked up her first album but I couldn't bring myself to play it. The event did inspire me to start off with something from a  survivor. 

Played List

Artist - Track - Album

Ike and Tina Turner - Betcha Can't Kiss Me Just One Time - So Fine

Souljazz Orchstra - Grasshopper & Toad - Manifesto

Gentle Giant - As Old As You're Young - The Missing Piece

They Might Be Giants - Purple Toupee - Lincoln

Gong - Radio Gnome Invisible - Flying Teapot

Alexander Tucker - Dark Rift / Black Road - Dorwytch

Do Make A Say Think - Herstory of Glory - You, You're a History in Rust

Robot News - Water-Walking Bot No Jesus

Brian Eno - Breath of Crows - Drums Between the Bells

King Crimson - I Talk to the Wind - The Court of the Crimson King

Yes - Sound Chaser - Relayer

July 20, 2011: Wundermike Oldfield

Iconic label, iconic group. Led to great hip hop.

All I knew about tonight's show was that it would start with the Sugar Hill Gang and end with Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn. 

Iconic label, led to a bearded billionaire, space ships, and THIS

Well, I was wrong about that. We ended with Sun Ra's version of Pink Elephants on Parade. I had become familiar with the Arkestra's version of the track from the Stay Awake album, see below, and had concluded that this was a freakier version of a Fantasia classic. Accordingly, I downloaded it as an alternative to the Lion King tracks repeatedly requested by a 2 year-old friend of mine. Turns out the song animates Dumbo's psychedelic reaction to alcohol. 

What was in that drink!?

Anyway the kids loved it and so did I.

Robot News is just a sample of the fun things one can do with what is now readily available tech. I await the fully interactive light sabre duel bots, but this is a start!

Nerd Alert! Next, robot girlfriend. Oh wait.

Played List 

Artist - Track - Album

Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper's Delight (short version) - [Single]

Tackhead - Hard Left - Tape Time

Mugstar - Ouroboros - Imprec300 Collection

Four 'n'giv'r - The Rom Downstairs - Second Psychle

Soft Machine - Dada Was Here - VolumeTwo

Soft Machine - Thank You Pierrot Lunaire - VolumeTwo

Robot News

Six Organs of Admittance - Dark Noontide - Dark Noontide

Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn - Ommadawn Band 1

Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn - Ommadawn Band2

Sun Ra and his Arkestra - Pink Elephants on Parade - Stay Awake (Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films

July 13, 2011: Eno for 10,000 Years Please

Brian Eno

The release of a new album by Brian Eno gives me the opportunity to dedicate a show to him. I discovered Eno about 4 years ago and have being playing catch-up ever since. The man's talents and achievements are legendary. He just seems to have a brilliant perspective on the world that leads to fascinating art and culture generally. For me his music was the rainbow bridge, taking my ears from the grey Ragnarok of indie music to the kaleidoscopic Valhalla of prog-psych-ambient etc.

Check out this talk he gave with game designer Will Wright. He just throws out these incredible insights such as "Reggae and Dub is taking things away". 

Eno in his natural habitat

Always an innovator he is possibly the world's most famous music producer. While his solo projects are very experimental, ranging from 70's glam pioneer to new age ambient and electronica, Eno is never condescending or self-centred. His left bank and oddball style doesn't stop him from working with mainstream artists. One gets the feeling that he is all about process. In fact he is the personification of genuine humility and has a great sense of humour.

Ambient music, electronica, oblique strategies, the Long Now Foundation: all Eno projects. I am pretty sure he has also cured a water-bourne disease, saving millions of Tasmanian lives, and is credited with he inventing the oboe and the artisinal tuna sandwich. He has also found time to create 77 million paintings.

Eno getting his Roxy Music glam on.

Please check out the Robot News link below for info on the Clock of the Long Now. It is a symbolic project to develop very long-term thinking by designing a clock that will keep good time and chime once a day for 10, 000 years with almost no human assistance. Mr Eno designed the chime sequence which will generate a unique series of tones, every day, for a hundred centuries.

Played List

Artist - Track - Album

Brian Eno and Rick Holland - Sounds of Alien Events - Drums Between the Bells

Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache - For Your Pleasure

Brian Eno - The True Wheel - Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy

Brian Eno - No One Receiving - Before and After Science

Robot News

Brian Eno and Rick Holland - Glitch - Drums Between the Bells

Robert Calvert  - Voyaging to Vinland - Lucky Leif and the Longships

David Bowie and Brian Eno - African Night Flight - Lodger

Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life In the Bush of Ghosts - Regiment

Jane Siberry - Sail Across the Water - When I Was A Boy

Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Roger Eno - Under Stars II - Appollo - Atmospheres and Soundtracks

Brian Eno - Prophecy Theme - Dune, The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Brian Eno - On Some Faraway Beach - Here Come the Warm Jets

Preview: Eno is Enough

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno

A new release from the apex guru of the interesting, prompts the Sand to focus on the music and other projects of Brian Eno. We could do a month plus of shows on the work and influence of this man so consider this program a limited sampler. Tune in tomorrow night at 11 pm to 101.0 FM in Kingston Ontario, or listen live online at cfrc.ca.

Some of Eno's roles have been:

Band Member

Songwriter

Artist

Sellout ;)

Collaborator

Producer

Namer

Inventor

Politician 

Lecturer

 

July 6, 2011: Destination Ananta!

Vishnu chillin' on Ananta S’esha

Not just for many headed serpents, the term "Ananta" also refers to a UK music combo from the late '70s that produced an album which somehow found its way into my possession by way of a Brighton Ontario yard sale.

The group was formed in England by Latin Grammy award winner Ilan Chester and fellow Venezuelans "the Spiteri Brothers", whoever they are. These men hooked up with a number of UK musicians and put out two albums, Night and Daydream and Songs From The Future. 

I obtained the former album which is a decent effort at spiritual-pscych-prog. I have seen reviews calling this both the best and worst item in various personal collections.

Ananta's Night and Daydream

I haven't really made up my mind about this LP musically, my first impression was that it is mediocre at best. What has really captivated me about this album is its marketing technique. A friend and I were both monetarily misled to think that this unknown group really did collaborate with Santana, Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and George Harrison. 

John McGlaughlin (left) and Carlos Santana (right) sandwiching Sri Chimnoy. The latter being a guru with questionable claims of personal strength, but whose followers make a damn fine lentil soup.

However, closer inspection suggested that these artists are listed on the back cover not as participants to the recording but for their inspiration and assistance in Ananta's "Worldwide Projects". Indeed, those artists had nothing to do with the record and it is very interesting to think that this apparently peace-love-oneness band employed such a shameless marketing ploy. There is some reason to think that the record was peddled by Hare Krishna people on the street, using the hard sell. (The notes say that it is a benefit recording). Lots of fun blog posts about Ananta online. Check out this forum in which the release is called both "a very under-rated and unique sounding band" as well as "the world's least saleable record".

The backside of Night and Daydream, read the small print!

Make up your mind for yourself after listening to the name-dropped artists played on the broadcast before I unleashed what I think is the best track on the record. Lacking a solid knowledge of good non-hit, non-Beatles George Harrison songs, I opted for the uninspired Gone Troppo with a track that one blogger said was the worst song on the record. As Apfran says, no one got better in the eighties. I realize that I need to make an effort to get to know Harrison's work from the 1970's. Write me with suggestions!

George Harrison, getting to know India in 1966. I plan to get to know both George and India a bit better in 2011.

Because the show was pre-recorded, the end got cut off in the archive for TSIYH's hour. Listen to the full song here.

Not much time for robot news this week, but here is the link to the teaser headline. It sounds better than it looks in this video. But we are getting closer to this and ideally, this.

Played List

Artist - Track - Album

Frank Zappa - Dancing Fool - Sheik Yerbouti

Stevie Wonder - Jesus Children of America - Innervisions

Santana - Waiting - Santana

Genesis - The Return of the Giant Hogweed - Genesis Live

King Crimson - Inner Games - Lizard

Saga - Don't Be Late - Silent Knight

Robot News

Bob Dylan - The Ballad of Hollace Brown - The Times They Are A-Changin'

Neil Diamond - Cracklin' Rose - Hot August Night

George Harrison - I Really Love You - Gone Troppo (bad song that rocks)

Ananta - Fill Your Heart and Mind - Night and Daydream

Preview: The Road to Ananta

George Harrison's Gone Troppo post-dates Night and Daydream,
 suggesting Harrison was influenced by Ananta

From "Grampus" on the "Rate Your Music" website with 'respect' to Ananta's Night and Daydream:

"This album is without equal in the whole of my collection. It is quite simply appalling and an embarrassment which, when you consider some of the other trash I've bought, is really saying something, but at least there is a story behind it.

Walking through Manchester town centre one Saturday morning clutching an armful of recently purchased albums, totally oblivious to everything going on around me, I'm suddenly accosted by a bloke dressed in a sheet." Would you like to buy one of these, sir?", he said thrusting this album under my nose. "Do you like any of these singers?", he said, pointing out the names of Santana, Dylan, Harrison, Diamond, Wonder and Marley on the cover. Well, I admitted that I did and so sealed my fate. For what seemed the next hour, I was appealed to, exhorted with, pleaded with to buy one of these things and, after beating him down from some ridiculous price, I added it to my others. It was only when playing it that I realised he should have paid me. Ananta are basically a group of very sad people spouting crack-pot religious ideas and all those artists named on the cover simply support those ideals and have never been within a million miles of this thing. So, what do I think of the music? Well you can tell by the amount of space left to review it. It's just aaaaaaaaahhh!!"

It is worth reading the other forum entries to get a flavour of the spectrum of emotions spanned by this enigmatic album. It is the best and worst of all things and perfect for a The Sand in Your Head special.

Tonight we play selections from all of the artists listed as assisting Ananta with its "Worldwide Projects" as well as some other UK prog from around the time of the Night and Daydream release and some Saga ... and Frank Zappa!