What are you listening to in 2024 and why might anyone be interested?

Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, David Torn & Chris Botti – Blue Nights

This is a stellar collaboration worth the price alone for one track ‘Deeper Blue’ which has a mesmerising Tony Levin bass riff and the most sublime trumpet playing from Chris Botti.

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It’s tough beating a bit of Boards imho …
… well, for those of that proclivity, of course :slightly_smiling_face:

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Chilling before bedtime

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Carpenters - Their Greatest Hits.

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Some more pre bed chill

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Bedtime Tunes:

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That should keep you busy for a while :wink:

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Again, one of my favourite albums! I love Shifts on the Fall of Hearts, I get a lump in my throat every time… “So find your way to the river, and let go”

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Having a Brian and Dennis Wilson evening, just watched the new documentary on Disney. Wonderful. It ends with a very emotional moment, brings tears to your eyes. A must see for any Beach Boys fans.

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Currently winding down with Hand. Cannot. Erase. By Steven Wilson.
Steven_Wilson_Hand_Cannot_Erase_cover

I still get goosebumps thinking of the live show in Royal Albert Hall. One of the best shows I’ve been to.

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Yazoo, upstairs at Eric’s. :smiling_face:

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Worth it for Mr Bojangles alone!

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Converge - You Fail Me (2004, limited edition)

I’ve been on a metalcore kick as of late having seen Botch live the other week and Cave In this Saturday so listening to the third pillar of the “Big Three” of the original American metalcore scene is only natural. Where Cave In represents a spacey, experimental middle-ground between accessibility and fury and Botch focuses on sharp, stop-start time-signature upending songwriting (which would influence the “math metal” scene in bands such as Dillinger Escape Plan for example), Converge has always maintained a rawness to the music that set them apart from their contemporaries. You Fail Me is an earnest, jagged aural assault that is less a collection of songs and more like a live-wire applied to an exposed nerve, juddering and screaming until the end result is synaptic collapse. Not a calming listen by any stretch but a deeply moving one that offers the occasional oasis of introspection and refrain before jerking back to white-hot rage.

An amusing fact about this album, vinyl supremo Michael Fremer himself recommended it in his column in Stereophile 20 years ago, something that greatly raised my opinion of the man and proved he’s one of the few audiophiles out there (professional or otherwise) that listens to music and not his hi-fi.

Speaking of sound quality, this pressing is very good and while the recording is rather dense, presenting an opaque ball of noise and rage, the tribal drumming is massive and possessed of a clarity that did the party trick of sounding like the real thing.

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Yep!, look out for vol 2! :grin:

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Yellow Magic Orchestra - Solid State Survivor - CD (1979)

In Memory of Yukihiro Takahashi who should have been 72 today.

Japanese musician, singer, record producer, and actor, Yukihiro Takahashi who was best known internationally as the drummer and lead vocalist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and as the former drummer of the Sadistic Mika Band. He was also a member of the group Metafive. Takahashi died on 11 January 2023, in Karuizawa, Nagano, from aspiration pneumonia, a complication of the brain tumour. He was 70.

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Yeah, why not👍🏼
Having Steven Wilson round for Breakfast😉

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I like the enthusiasm of your review @Taake but Metalcore just doesn’t connect with me for some reason.

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@taake. I meant ask, do you have Anthrax Persistence Of Time on a single vinyl release and if so is the sound quality OK? It’s a pretty long album to fit on one LP (just short of 60 mins I think). Over 55 mins is usually a no go for me unless I can hear it first.

King Hannah - Big Swimmer (2024)
Via Tidal stream 24/96

I just love this Folk and Post Punk Melange. Totally new for me, read something about them in the Rolling Stone and saw some posts here. I have been streaming this for some days and I totally enjoy it. Real good Guitar playing :ok_hand:

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Played this in the car yesterday and it sounded interesting. I have it on the list for a proper listen today or tomorrow.

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