Playlist
My most recently played albums, playlist archive, current favourite, new releases, music magazines and hi-fi equipment.
Most Recently Played Albums
The albums I've played during March 2025.
Levellers - Green Blade Rising || Gold Panda - Good Luck And Do Your Best || Bass Communion - Bass Communion II || No-Man - Speak || Porcupine Tree - Up The Downstair || Steven Wilson - The Overview || The Beatles - 1967-1970 || McDonald And Giles - McDonald And Giles || Kings Of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak || Weather Report - I Sing The Body Electric || Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings || The Memory Band - Oh My Days || Tosca - Going Going Going || Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill || Various Artists - Songs From The County Hell || John Mayall - Back To The Roots || Carbon Based Lifeforms - Twentythree || Daevid Allen - Divided Alien Playbax 80 || Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Works, Volume 1 || Budgie - Never Turn Your Back On A Friend || Be-Bop Deluxe - Drastic Plastic || Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams || Judie Tzuke - I Am The Phoenix || Jethro Tull - Curious Ruminant || Doves - Constellations For The Lonely || Darkside - Nothing || Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise In The Hold.
Playlist Archive
All the albums I've played each year since 1st January 2018.
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025Current Favourite
The Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet
In 1968 The Stones forsook psychedelic experimentation to return to their blues roots with this epic album. A strong acoustic Delta blues flavour colours much of the material, particularly on "Salt of the Earth" and "No Expectations" which features some lovely slide guitar work. However, "Street Fighting Man" is basic rock & roll with a reflection of the political turbulence of the time and is still one of their most innovative singles. "Sympathy for the Devil" with its flying guitar licks, leering Jagger vocals and African rhythms is a defining moment in their history. The lyrical bite of the material ensured the album's place as one of the top blues-based rock records of all time.
Sympathy For The Devil || No Expectations || Dear Doctor || Parachute Woman || Jig-Saw Puzzle || Street Fighting Man || Prodigal Son || Stray Cat Blues || Factory Girl || Salt Of The Earth.
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New Releases
Steven Wilson - The Overview
If you've looked the stars and wondered about how vast the universe is and how small we are, well that sense of awe is at the core of "The Overview", Steven Wilson's seventh solo album, an ambitious and thought provoking work. The album is inspired by the 'Overview Effect', a shift in perspective astronauts experience when they see Earth from space. The concept alone is compelling but it is Wilson's musical interpretation that elevates it into something extraordinary. He has returned to his progressive roots and has crafted one of his most compelling works.
Objects Outlive Us (No Monkey's Paw | The Buddha Of The Modern Age | Objects: Meanwhile | The Cicerones | Ark | Cosmic Sons Of Toil | No Ghost On The Moor | Heat Death Of The Universe) || The Overview (Perspective | A Beautiful Infinity I | Borrowed Atoms | A Beautiful Infinity II | Infinity Measured In Moments | Permanence).
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Jethro Tull - Curious Ruminant
Jethro Tull have now released three albums in quick succession, "The Zealot Gene" (2022),"RokFlote" (2023) and now "Curious Ruminant". That is an output rate that few younger peers are able to match. It is clear that Ian Anderson's creativity has not run dry and this album, as well as the previous two, is of a very high standard. However, "Curious Ruminant" is perhaps the strongest of the three and it's exciting to hear an artist who's still producing music of this quality after so many years. For those who enjoy strong lyrical themes, there's much to dig into, and musically it's full of great playing and virtuoso flute in particular.
Puppet And The Puppet Master || Curious Ruminant || Dunsinane Hill || The Tipu House || Savannah Of Paddington Green || Stygian Hand || Over Jerusalem || Drink From The Same Well || Interim Sleep.
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Doves - Constellations For The Lonely
This band has stood the test of time as purveyors of catchy melancholic tunes with an impeccably charming sound. "Constellations For The Lonely" is an intricate and masterful record from a band at the top of their game, still retaining their familiar sound yet open to exploring new terrain. The album's progressive rock influences are hard to miss. "Strange Weather" could pass for a lost Pink Floyd track, all ethereal harmonies and dramatic chord shifts, while "In the Butterfly House" carries that creeping, Radiohead-like tension. In the end, the album is a powerfully sombre statement that may not be their most joyous work, but it's certainly one of their most compelling.
Renegade || Cold Dreaming || In The Butterfly House || Strange Weather || A Drop In The Ocean || Last Year's Man || Stupid Schemes || Saint Teresa || Orlando || Southern Bell.
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Darkside - Nothing
It has been four years since the band's last album "Spiral" and the band have clearly been busy as "Nothing" is packed full of ideas and influences. In fact there are times on this album that feel sonically confused or where certain ideas are not given the space to fully develop but it is that confusion that creates the fine organic and improvisational moments. This lack of cohesion makes for a difficult first time listening experience yet rewards repeated plays. The music is a dark, sensuous, strangely vivid, pulsing cosmic sprawl with what seems like every element getting run through some sort of effect. This is the frenetic soundtrack to the world's mounting chaos.
SLAU || S.N.C || Are You Tired? (Keep On Singing) || Graucha Max || American References || Heavy Is Good For This || Hell Suite (Part I) || Hell Suite (Part II) || Sin El Sol No Hay Nada.
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Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise In The Hold
Yazz Ahmed is a British-Bahraini trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer, she blends Arabic and Western influences to create rich and complex contemporary jazz. The album is filled with highly creative, haunting and moving music which collectively form a certain mystic to the overall sound. This is the work of a composer who understands the importance of space, embracing what is possible and triumphantly discovering a transformative beauty. The record is based on the sorrowful songs of Bahrain's pearl divers and the celebratory rhythms of traditional Arabic drumming. This is a groundbreaking fusion of tradition and innovation, a lovely album.
She Stands On The Shore || A Paradise In The Hold || Mermaids' Tears || Her Light || Al Naddaha || Dancng Barefoot || Into The Night || Though My Eyes Go To Sleep, My Heart Does Not Forget You || To The Lonely Sea || Waiting For The Dawn.
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Tunng - Love You All Over Again
Tunng's ninth album and their first in five years, celebrates their 20th anniversary by returning to the softer sound textures and folksy melodies of their earlier releases. For me, this is a welcome step back to the pagan feel that first drew me into the work. Listening to this is like falling into a weird dream with a bazaar soundtrack of crackles, haunted unnatural noises, mystery and magic that make this sound as good as 2005's "Mother's Daughter and Other Songs". Co-founder Mike Lindsay has said "It's very Tunng, dark but then warm and melancholic". When I played this it instantly reminded me of the film "The Wicker Man", a truly captivating album that casts a bewildering spell on the listener.
Everything Else || Didn't Know Why || Sixes || Snails || Laundry || Drifting Memory Station || Deep Underneath || Levitate A Little || Yeekeys || Coat Hangers.
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Can - Live In Keele 1977
Continuing the live series of Can albums, "Live In Keele 1977", was recorded at Keele University on 2nd March 1977. The album is a dynamic document of late-period Can with a core line up of Irmin Schmidt, Jaki Liebezeit, Michael Karoli and Holger Czukay augmented by the addition of Rosko Gee on bass so that Czukay was freed up to perform waveform radio and sounds, manifesting here as otherworldly noises, samples and what has been described as "moontalk to a white continental telephone". The performance is an intense cosmic voyage that's full of psychedelic energy designed for the imaginative mind and showcasing one of the greatest live krautrock bands of all time. This late-era Can is arguably their best live period, it sounds invigorating. What more could you want?
Keele 77 Eins || Keele 77 Zwei || Keele 77 Drei || Keele 77 Vier || Keele 77 Funf.
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Primal Scream - Come Ahead
Primal Scream's first album since "Chaosmosis" in 2016 shines some glitterball light into today's dark times. The band have already played with around with punk, indie, dance, Stones rock and country, so on this release they tick off disco and funk just for fun. Lyrically, Gillespie is still as cutting as ever, an example being to the right wing con of trickledown economics on "Innocent Money". With all the troubles in the world it's great to blast out the Curtis Mayfield indebted flutes and hippy optimism of "Love Insurrection" and the Afro-dub strum of "The Centre Cannot Hold". This is an album that lifts your spirits like only Primal Scream can.
Ready To Go Home || Love Insurrection || Heal Yourself || Innocent Money || Melancholy Man || Love Ain't Enough || Circus Of Life || False Flags || Deep Dark Waters || The Centre Cannot Hold || Settlers Blues.
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The Smile - Cutouts
Here the band continues to demonstrate their innate ability to make songs that are consistently engaging, emotive and richly textured. Every song gives us something fascinating to grip on to, whether that's a pulsating electronic beat or a high-octane guitar riff that demands serious attention. Over the ten songs, The Smile prove that they're only capable of making songs of the highest quality. It is an immersive and all-encompassing album that is at its best when you play it loud, allowing all of the vast textures of sound to wash over you. In its quietest moments, it is still full of beauty, which often simmers just beneath the surface, beckoning us closer. Let's hope they still have more excellent songs remaining in their tank to deliver to us.
Foreign Spies || Instant Psalm || Zero Sum || Colours Fly || Eyes And Mouth || Don't Get Me Started || Tiptoe || The Slip || No Words || Bodies Laughing
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David Gilmour - Luck And Strange
The legendary guitarist contemplates mortality with more than a sprinkling of great guitar solos. The album is exactly what anyone who has followed Gilmour's output for decades would expect: a collection of meditations on the fragility of humankind with a dusting of optimism that taps into the majestic weirdness of his former band. There are times here that recall Pink Floyd especially on the extended jam version "Luck And Strange" with the late Rick Wright on electric piano and organ. If Gilmour was the heart of Pink Floyd then Wright was the soul, listening to this is a true pleasure. The album is a wonderfully crafted and beautiful work of art.
Black Cat || Luck And Strange || The Piper's Call || A Single Spark || Vita Brevis || Between Two Points || Dark And Velvet Nights || Sings || Scattered || Yes, I Have Ghosts || Luck And Strange.
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Music Magazines
Mojo
Mojo issue 378 featuring Queen; Alan Sparhawk; Sex Pistols; Japanese Breakfast; The Pogues; Rick Buckler; The Beatles; Chet Baker; Led Zeppelin; Jeff Bridges; Dionne Warwick; The Doobie Brothers; Guided By Voices; Prince; Lenny Waronker; Alabaster DePlume plus 144 reviews.
Includes free CD "Songs From The County Hell".
Fifteen raucous Irish folk 'n' roll tracks featuring The Pogues; The Men They Couldn't Hang; The Walker Roaders; The Mary Wallopers; Lisa O'Neill; Nyah Fearties; Landless; The Dubliners; The Spook Of The Thirteenth Lock; John Francis Flynn; Lankum; Ye Vagabonds; Terry Woods; Swamptrash; plus The Clancy Brothers And Tommy Makem.
Uncut
Uncut issue 337 featuring Led Zeppelin; John McKay; David Bowie; Jason Isbell; Bryan Ferry; Middle Earth; The Waterboys; Steel Pulse; Maddy Prior; The Clash; Marianne Faithfull; Destroyer; Sex Pistols; Valerie June; The Lemon Twigs plus 186 reviews.
Includes free CD "Time To fly".
Fifteen tracks of the month's best music featuring Tobacco City; Florist; Nico Georis; Dean Wareham; Eiko Ishibashi; Brown Horse; Black Country, New Road; The Waterboys; Songs Of Green Pheasant; Valerie June; Index For Working Musik; Jason Isbell; Sam Akpro; Snapped Ankles plus Butler, Blake & Grant.
Hi-Fi Equipment
My sound system: KEF speakers, Technics deck, Philips wireless headphones, Marantz CD player and Marantz amplifier.