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But for the next 65 minutes, it's clear that while BOC move slow, they do so with the power of shifting glaciers. All their old influences - the noise-as-melody drone of My Bloody Valentine, the brave futuristic synths of Neu! - remain, but more than anything, "Geogaddi" is about the vivid sense of warm melancholy that lingers when the music fades out.

It's another slow-burner, but "Geogaddi" is as utterly essential as its predecessor. ~ Amazon





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One of the Stones' most beloved albums, 1969's Let It Bleed was a benchmark for several reasons. First, founding guitarist Brian Jones died during the recording process.

Second, the Stones take their last significant look at pure blues (Robert Johnson's spooky "Love in Vain") and country ("Country Honk," the two-stepping alter ego of "Honky-Tonk Women") before folding both styles into a cohesive rock roll vision. Third, it contains some of the band's most eerie hits, such as the flame-enveloped "Gimme Shelter," the drug-reality anthem "Monkey Man," the epic "You Can't Always Get What You Want," and Mick Jagger's menacing "Midnight Rambler." ~ Amazon






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"Evening Star", the second collaboration between Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, finds the pair operating in much the same environment as their first collaboration - Fripp performs as a guitarist, soloing over loops developed via a system of tape looping invented by Eno termed "Frippertronics".

The difference is that by this point, Eno's ideas for ambient music were developed much further and the album reflects it. The first 'side' contains four brief tracks - three Frippertronics performance and one excerpt from the soon-to-be-released "Discreet Music". Fripp's three performances are staggering - his performance is nothing short of inspired and the loops provide an intriguing bed for him to work on.

Of particular note is the title track, "Evening Star", built around a simple clean-tone guitar riff and harmonics, Fripp solos in fuzz tone in an overwhelmingly delicate and powerful mode. The excerpt from "Discreet Music" - clocking in at just under three minutes of a thirty minute track - is a great teaser for one of Eno's great pieces and is likely to leave any unitiated thirsting for more (and "Discreet Music" is a worthwhile endeavor). The second 'side' is one lengthy track - "An Index of Metals", and finds Fripp layering distorted guitar line upon distorted guitar line until a mush of dissonance takes over.

The resulting sound is haunting and brooding and develops nicely over the nearly half hour it spans. It seems that neither Fripp nor Eno could do no wrong in the mid '70s - the two were standing on the edge of music and turned out countless brilliant albums, "Evening Star" is no exception. Highly recommended.

~ Amazon






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Do You Like My Tight Sweater was released in a year when female vocalist led down-tempo acts were hitting saturation point. There seemed to be literally hundreds of enthusiastic epigones attempting to emulate the work of "trip-hop" artists like Tricky, Massive Attack and Portishead. Most of these acts took the same introspective, zeitgeist-capturing route of these seminal Bristol bands--but not producer Mark Brydon (House Arrest, Cloud 9) and singer Roisin Murphy, aka Moloko (a name taken from the Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange).

Their debut album, cheekily titled "Do You Like My Tight Sweater?", arrived on the dance scene without fanfare at around this time and presented a radically different take on the down-tempo sound. Boisterous, surreal and humorous, the LP resists the temptation to conjure up yet more disenchanted inner city isolation, seeking instead to paint a brighter - or at least quirkier - picture of modern living.

Murphy's elfish, stream-of-consciousness lyrics are delivered here with an infectious slink appeal and are the perfect match for Brydon's slightly bonkers mix of hip-hop beats and funk mixed with groans, creaks, springs and slams. Featuring the cult hits "Fun For Me" and "Night For Day", Do You..

. also showcases a bunch more bewitching records, from the Os Mutantes sounding "Lotus Eaters", the sultry "Dominoid", the drum bass kick of "Butterfly 747" and the silly funk of "Killa Bunnies". It's a rare and genuinely entertaining album.

~ Amazon





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Following the breakup of the seminal British post-punk outfit Swell Maps, frontman Nikki Sudden embarked on a solo career, then concurrently formed a new band called the Jacobites. Far more classicist than Swell Maps had been, the Jacobites gave Sudden a chance to exercise his penchant for straightforward, elegantly wasted rock roll, drawing chiefly from the Stones and the Faces while adding elements of singer/songwriter rock (Neil Young, Bob Dylan) and crunchy British glam (T. Rex, Mott the Hoople, David Bowie).

Having issued his solo debut in 1982, Sudden formed the Jacobites in 1984 with his brother, ex-Swell Maps drummer Epic Soundtracks, and guitarist Dave Kusworth. Bassist Mark Lemon rounded out the charter lineup, and the group made their LP debut with a self-titled effort on the indie label Glass in 1984; they also released an EP, Shame for the Angels, that year. A second album, Robespierre's Velvet Basement, appeared in 1985 and was something of a critical and underground success.

Two more Jacobites EPs - "Pin Your Heart To Me" and "When The Rain Comes" - appeared before guitarist Kusworth left the group in early 1986 to pursue a solo career. Although Sudden kept the Jacobites name for his shifting backing group for several years afterward, for all intents and purposes they were no longer the Jacobites in spirit. Nonetheless, the 1986 compilation "The Ragged School" introduced their music to American audiences when it was released on Twin/Tone at the urging of Paul Westerberg, and another compilation, 1988's "Fortune Of Fame", further enhanced their reputation.

~ All Music