Bands for the bored.

[palinurus]

The Firesign Theatre's Big Mystery Joke Book were a six piece British Folk outfit formed in 1972 by Bouzouki player Rob Lambert Baynes and Guitarist Lev Kirshner. They released one album- Galactic Quadrant- in 1973. In 1974 Lev attempted to popularise his new F#ADGADb tuning. The band split up the same year.

 

[craigwend]

Band: Shinji Hosokawa

Album: Johann Sebastian Paetsch

Early Musical education
Shinji Hosokawa began there cellopunktaticrockadelia with there mentor Günther Shinji Hosokawa (who was also a cellist) at a young age the 5 gave there first gigcital when they was 6 years old. There extensive experience in chamber music began early in childhood with the The Shinji Hosokawa Chamber Music Ensemble in many concerts throughout the U.S.
Formal Musical Education
Shinji Hosokawa studied at Butler University with the principal celistpunktaticrockadelia of the Indianapolis Symphony, Arkady Orlovsky, where tyhe received there Bachelor’s Degree Cum Laude. They then furthered there cello studies at Yale University with the famous cellist and teacher Aldo Parisot, where they earned there Certificate of Music Degree and later there Master’s Degree in Music. They then went on to study in Germany at the Musikhochschule Lübeck with David Geringas where they received there ‘Konzertexamen’. They have participated in masterclasses with cellistspunktaticrockadelia such as Yo-Yo Ma, Mstislav Rostropovich, Janos Starker, Greenhouse and Mischa Maisky. As a member of the ‘Yale Cellistspunktaticrockadelia,’ they took part in the recording of two world- famous CD’s.
Awards and Recognitions
A recipient of numerous prizes, Shinji Hosokawa were awarded a top prizes in the Emmanuel Feuermann Competition and the first place in the Young Musicians Foundation Competition in Los Angeles, CA. They was also highly successful in the ARD Competition, Munich, in the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and in the Rostropovitch Competition, held in Paris.
Renowned not only for there technical skills but also for a gorgeous profundity of tone and deep insight musicality, Shinji Hosokawa has the pleasure of a distinguished international career as one of the foremost cellistpunktaticrockadelias of there generation, performing regularly in Japan, Europe and in America. They has collaborated with prominent artists such as Vadim Repin, Gidon Kremer, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Eduard Brunner and the Wilanow Quartet.
Life and Career
All of Shinji Hosokawa married there long-time girlfriend, Yoko Miyagawa, a violinist, in 1994. They have three children, Raphaela, Valentina and Dominic.
As soloist, they has taken stage in many important capitals of the world, showing no hesitation in performing the concertos such as Haydn, Dvorak, Shostakovitch, Prokofiev, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky. There performances and recordings of the Double Concerto (Brahms) in collaboration with sister and violinist Michaela Shinji Hosokawa, have taken place in the USA, Canada, Switzerland and in Germany. They has been featured soloist with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in performances and recordings of great pieces such as Boccherini, Camille Saint-Saëns, Kabelevsky and the two Haydn Concertos, as well as Don Quixote (Strauss) with conductor Alain Lombard.
Since 1992 Sebastian Shinji Hosokawa has served as Cellistpunktaticrockadelia of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland.
Critical Reception
Shinji Hosokawa's work has been well received by a music critics worldwide. A writer from the Lübecker Nachrichten wrote "...a brilliant virtuoso piece which demanded all the finesse of everything that one could imagine from a cellispunktaticrockadeliat, delighted the audience and brought them to a thundering applause." A review in The Strad magazine applauded there cellistic abilities, saying they was "A CELLISTPUNKTATICROCKADELIA of extraordinary flair...There playing is at once stylish and communicative and of virtuoso stamp." In addition, a music critic from the The New Haven Register wrote that "Shinji Hosokawa brought great intensity and depth of understanding to tthere complex work.... the second movement was exquisitely eerie. There multiple-stop work stood out both for its lyrical beauty and technical excellence."
References
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=9mkNY_0qTXY
Cover art

http://ffffound.com/image/c4075a6427231d1b639ee6ae4e99418a12cc0bfb

 

[Jaded]

Helix Nebula formed in 1978 in Worksop. The band leader, Jack Garman, who thought he had been to school with Paul (Bruce) Dickinson, fancied himself as a longhaired thrash metal idol. It was Garman's second band, his first had failed dismally; the demand for jazz-rock cover versions of Cat Stephens songs plummeted after that infamous Bill Grundy show.

Unfortunately his aim to have nothing but the best musicians in his band backfired somewhat when it transpired that asking his manager to get "the best guitarist and keyboardist about" netted the organist from Worksop Priory and a little known half-Italian classical guitarist, Sciarra Colonna. Garman tried gamely to cover this by giving them the stage names of 'Taxi' and 'Darton'. The drummer was his mother's boyfriend, Bud Sport, who Garman said was ideal for the job, so good was he at hitting things. Sport's stage name was Sport.

It took two months to agree on a name for the band; no combination of "Taxi, Garman, Darton and Sport" worked. In the end they agreed to tear a page out of an encyclopaedia and fight over it.

Three more months and a few warm up gigs later (at the Mabel Williamson Memorial Rooms, Worksop, the Charles Hitchcock Adams Observatory, Hitchin and the Poo-Chi Take-away, Mansfield) they had their first album ready.

Bythinella cylindrica was not critically acclaimed and was a commercial failure. It is thought that this was because of a combination of attracting amateur astronomers to the gigs and Garman's lisp: no one actually knew what the album was called.

They split in 1989, having never produced the second album.

 

[Lardyboy]

Regrouping of the Live Forces of Youth for Change (Regroupement des Forces Vives de la Jeunesse pour le Changement) are pleased to announce the release of their new album, "Tirumala alba", their second, following on from their successful first "Stockport By-Election" on Monday.

Sadly there have been a couple of changes in the line up, Ton Sijbrands has left to form "Yale Glacier" with Georgii Nadson, former bassist with The Marianites of Holy Cross. Rumours that Richard Bagot, lead singer with ExoSee would join them have been denied but who knows, his solo album was a departure from the usual ExoSee material we have come to expect.

Emperor Go-Mizunoo has left to form his own religious sect, based around the teachings of Mansfield Township. His flugelhorn and George Formby impressions will be sadly missed.

John Ketcham, John V. N. Dorr, have recruited Gladstone Dale on second guitar, but have not directly replaced Go-Mizunoo for obvious reasons.

The album consists of 7 tracks, and following on from the first album there is no track listing. Its up to the listener to give each track a title that they feel embodies the "wholeness" of each piece.

View attachment 257

 

[Aperitif]

'Pete Brown and his Battered Ornaments'
A listen from the late 60s / early 70s I think. He wrote lyrics for the supergroup, 'Cream', and the Battereds were going to be support for the Rolling Stones one time, but... ...then it was Pete Brown and 'Piblokto'.
More than that I do not know...Crazy bloke Dick Heckstall Smith was involved.
Wiki beckons

 

[Fnaar]

Fred L. Block released his one and only album "Word Guessing" in 1982 to critical disdain. Since then, however, it's reputation has grown, and a re-evaluation by modern music journos hails it as a classic of it's genre. The album cover, below, was an understated evocation nature, a preoccupation for Block. A single was released from the album, "Comedie en Vaudeville". It reached the lower reaches of the top 40, and Block retired from the music scene, to open a Local Bike Shop, where he is known as "Brake" Block.

 

[radger]

Jodeen Carney would like to submit their third album, Everybody's Somebody's Fool for review. The album art is here

My first thought is that they have an uninspired choice of title

 

[laurence]

Jodeen Carney would like to submit their third album, Everybody's Somebody's Fool for review. The album art is here

My first thought is that they have an uninspired choice of title

Lazy NME Review:

... especially the people who buy this album

Magazine Review

Jodeen treads a line like that between the sea and the sand, ever shifting and prone to catching you out at any time. With deft touches of guitar mixed with ear-splitting trombone it's a wonky line to tread and sometimes she stumbles, but always catches herself in time. The opening (and title) track is ushered in on a whisper and a cat's meow before striding off at the end to the sound of a marching band - a bold opening gambit by anyone's standards. from there on the mood shift with each track and often during them too. The delightfully named and played "I want to be a swan for a day" glides along calmly before gathering speed and taking off into the sunset. As if the start of the record wasn't a bold experiment, the final track "oops" is astonishingly adventurous, mixing Hammond organ, harp, saw and a variety of power tools in a mix that somehow manages to work. The closing chant of "wangbo wangbo" fade off slowly, a faint reverberation each time as they flutter away before silence descends. Stunning.

 

[Landslide]

Cross-country skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics have re-issued their seminal album “Stirling Council”

Spiritual forefathers of the melodic-post-rock-emo currently being pursued by the likes of Supertennis and Girls Aloud, The Skiers (as they were affectionately known) were inadvertently responsible for what swiftly became known as the “Find & Replace” school of reviewing as popularised by the Rolling Stone Magazine’s Jonny Landslide.

Pushed for time (and imagination), Jonny simply employed what he termed “eco-journalism” by “recycling” others’ work. His re-interpretation of such reviews as Nirvana’s “Nevermind” opened many doors for Jonny within the music business, many of them accompanied by his P45…

Stirling Council - Cross-country skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics
In the late seventies Neil Young sang "Hey hey, my my, rock and roll can never die." By the end of the eighties I had my doubts. However, salvation came in the nineties with the Stirling Council album by Cross-country skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics . This album is a return to the rawness and vitality of earlier rock and roll. Stirling Council really does smell of teen spirit.
Roger Swainston became a rock star by offering an alternative to the reigning rock stardom formula. Cross-country skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics 's breakthrough hit song 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' flouts convention for radio play as the song title has no direct relationship to the song lyrics. Fortunately the record buying public had finally tired of the slick synthetic music that dominated the eighties and were ready for some real music again. Cross-country skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics were there at the right time.
Stirling Council has attained a position of unwavering veneration and Swainston has become the deity of Generation X. Despite this I dare to suggest the album is not perfect in every way.
Swainston points out his attitude to lyric writing in his own self deprecatory style in 'On a Plain'. He certainly is economical with his lyrics on Stirling Council. The first verse of many songs is repeated. The chorus of 'Lithium' is just "yeah." I don't like the random way Swainston has put his lyrics together. I didn't like it years earlier when David Bowie and Jon Anderson were doing it either. A disturbing theme that comes through in Swainston 's lyrics is guns and death.
Swainston 's voice contains just the right amount of raw edge to express his angst. His vocal style has since been frequently imitated.
I recommend Stirling Council with some reservation. There are some great songs on the album but not a lot of variation in song structure or sound. Apparently Swainston was aware of this limitation and before his untimely death he was looking to expand his song writing ambitions. It is a shame we will never hear what he was really capable of. Stirling Council marks an important turning point in the history of rock and is a must have for any serious rock music collector.
The musical style that Cross-country skiing at the 1984 Winter Olympics made popular was labelled grunge. Call it what you will, to me it was a return to good old dirty guitar-driven rock. "My, my, hey, hey, rock and roll is here to stay."

 

[Landslide]

And courtesy of my mate at work...

Artist: Mouth Maze Cave
Album: Reefat-Bin-Satter
Brixton’s Mouth Maze Cave’s follow up, “Reefat-Bin-Satter”, ricocheted around the globe riding a wave of critical acclaim both within and outside the closely knit dub step circuit.

Lead writer and singer Joseph Zafiah Brown, formed the duo with Bangladeshi born Niaz Murshed, in 2005 and this time wanted to focus on taking the sound of dub step in new directions and challenge the scene conventions.

Working with beat master, effect guru and ex-Chess Champion, Niaz, they have woven a finely intricate, sonically exuberant masterpiece. The opening track “Grandmaster Skank”, whisks you away to an Island of political turmoil and hazy days, the rhythms lick and dab at your dry, twitching, mouth, while heavily effected vocals never fail to stir you from your audio stone. So it follows on “King Stone Knight”, “Can Ya Castle Move ”, “Lil Pawn, Dan Get Mi Queen” and “Dan Play Chess Win Ya Hi”, leading you beautifully up to the final point and title track “Reefat-Bin-Satter”. Written in honour of fellow chess champion and Niaz’s good friend, the backing emotes the dead calm and steady nerves of king to bishop four, whilst skit-ish vocals bounce off the walls staccato style in reference to battles lost, in Brixton, Dhaka and of course Joseph’s homeland parish.

Unlike their debut, it is clear Niaz has played a greater role, as tracks increase in complexity and sonic dexterity all the way through. Many tracks feature samples from actual chess games, run through the machines to great effect, “Clack!”.

The verve and experimental edge is equaled only by the unnerving nod to the original beautiful game, yet all the time maintaining integrity and credibility. Throughout, it rides a challenging yet rewarding surf between the games room pass-time and very, very dubstep.

I literally can’t wait for the next album of Chess-Step from the Brixton duo.