Journal

Introduction:
I plan to start a major project for my blog, where the participants will be sharing at least one album from every country in the world. The albums I share will be obscure and commercially unavailable or out of print, or from independent artists. I could really use some help with this project though, as my knowledge of music from various countries from around the world is far from infinite.

If you are an independent artist that would like to represent your country, please contact me via PM/shoutbox, or reply to this journal entry. I would also like to receive recommendations from anyone who might happen across entry. I'm aware of many Swedish bands, but I would really like to be recommended some albums that are truly mindblowing. If you would like to leave a recommendation, please reply to this entry. I am also recruiting outside help for this project, so if you think you would like to contribute, please contact me and I will fill you in on all the details.

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This is the second instalment in my effort to retrospectively post my annual album picks, originally prepared for Birdman Sound's website...

Some of the great new albums coming to my attention in 2006:

- Acid Mothers Temple – Starless and Bible Black Sabbath [Alien8]
- Bardo Pond -- Ticket Crystals [Atp]
- Buffalo Killers – Buffalo Killers [Alive]
- Comets on Fire -- Avatar [Sub Pop]
- Daniel (A.I.U.) Higgs -- Ancestral Songs [Holy Mountain]
- Espers – Espers II [Drag City]
- The Heads -- Under The Stress Of A Headlong Dive [Invada]
- La Ira de Dios -- Archaeopterix [Nasoni]
- Major Stars -- Syntoptikon [Twisted Village]
- Om -- Conference of the Birds [Holy Mountain]
- Oneida -- Happy New Year [Jagjaguar]
- Orange Sunshine -- Ruler of the universe [motorwolf]
- Plastic Crimewave Sound -- No Wonderland [Eclipse]
- Residual Echoes -- California [Holy Mountain]
- Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice -- Gypsy Freedom [5RC]


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Yeah - prog. Difficult one, really. I grew up in the era just after punk when prog was supposed to be EVIL. It was written about like it was the reign of Voldemort or something. Of course,you never heard any, but you knew what it sounded like because the NME told you about it: horrible musos in crap clothes playing keyboard solos that went on for 15 years whilst the drummer kept changing the beat just to prove he could. Chilling. Then I heard some.
Okay, so some prog deserves the criticism of too much emphasis on "technical proficiency" and long boring solos. I am not defending that stuff. "Technical proficiency" is bollocks; inspiration is everything and the prog era threw up loads of brilliantly inspired stuff. I confess I don't like ELP or "classic era" Yes, but a whole broad musical era shouldn't be written off just for a couple of lousy bands. Anyhow, here's my personal list of favourite prog albums. Feel free to comment. …

stuff I'm curious about for some reason or another but haven't been able to find...
Care to help me out?

Alison's Halo - Dozen / Calendar
ZAAR - Zaar
90 Day Men - To Everybody
Shy Reptiles - Shy Reptiles
Anonymous - Inside The Shadow
Chauchat - Upon Thousands
Speaker Bite Me - Action Painting
The Bank Holidays - As A Film
Spirogyra - Bells, Boots and Shambles
Edward Bear - Bearings
Älgarnas Trädgård - Framtiden är ett svävande skepp, förankrat i forntiden
Smart Went Crazy - Con Art
Love Shop - 1990
September Plateau - Occasional Light
Meow Meow - Snow Gas Bones
Outrageous Cherry - Out There In the Dark
3Ds - The Venus Trail
Paleo - The Song Diary
{{SOUNDER}} - Good Things Come and Go
Blackbird Harmony - Hardwood Exits
Before - A Wish of Life
Barkmarket - Vegas Throat


more added (and hopefully taken away!) from time to time

As many people know, when Nurse With Wound released its first album, A Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella, they released a list of bands which had inspired them. Unlike most instances where artists make such lists, this list was actually noteworthy and has become somewhat of a guide to many for underground, experimental 70's music. A few of the artists on the list are known to most people such as Canand Velvet Underground, but for the most part the list is a unique collection of obscure artists spanning many different genres from krautrock to noise to jazz to early industrial. You can read more about the list here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_With_Wound_list
And you can see the list along with album recommendations made by Audion magazine based on their meetings with Steven Stapleton here: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ultimathule/nww/nwwlist.html

Now, while the Audion Guide is great for providing recommendations about what album to get as well as giving information on the record label…

Quick and dirty audio log at http://fotnot.tumblr.com/

Logged so far >>>

Sun Ra
Hush Arbors
Piotor
Elodie Lauten
Holger Czukay
Moral Fibro
Justine and the Victorian Punks
Woo
Monade
Seamonster1
Premiere Classe
Lard Free
Officer!
Friz Be
Rodriguez
The Lo Yo Yo
Hood
Gwen Guthrie
Keith Jarrett
Jone Takamäki Trio
Ny Akustik
Grab Grab The Haddock
Solid Space
Gareth Williams & Marie Currie
Mag & the suspects
Lake
Älgarnas Trädgård
Ennio Morricone
Eau Claire
visible
Little Wings
Dazzle
Mahogany
Robert Wyatt
A.C. Marias
Heaven & Earth
Missing Brazilians

When rating albums I try to do so in a historical context, that is how an album compares against the entire body of similar music. This means that the best album for any given year, which most people would rate with top marks may not receive the same rating in my charts as only the best albums of all time should get the highest ratings... This chart does not include compilations or live albums.

My Ratings:
Note: I vote on a bell curve, anything above 6 is really good, anything much below 4 really isn't :D
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5185/5664036659_6c8d34884b_z_d.jpg
1. (=) Gazpacho - Night (2007) - 8.00 (8.00)
2. (=) Naikaku - Shell (2006) - 7.86 (8.00)
3. (=) Areknamés - Love Hate Round Trip (2006) - 7.77 (7.73)
4. (=) Magenta - Revolutions (2001) - 7.73 (7.84)
5. (=) Black Bonzo - Sound of the Apocalypse (2007) - 7.05 (6.75)
6. (=) Social Tension - It Reminds Me of Macbethia (2000) - 7.04 (7.14)
7. (=) Biglietto per l'Inferno - Biglietto per l'Inferno (1974) - 7.00 (7.00)
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