Reviews by kuvien

It's got those tried-and-true English female harmonies going on, accompanied by some exquisite fingerpicking on the acoustic guitars. Actually, I hear a bit of here, at least at the beginning. This album is a real hidden gem of psychedelic folk. Quite pastoral in overall feeling. The album takes a marked psychedelic turn on "Blue Mountain", but without losing the pastoral feel.

It’s surprising to me that these people are from Pennsylvania, considering that there’s just not that much good psychedelic folk with a Medieval tint like this to come out of the States. But there’s so much inspiration to be had there, if you just look around you, especially in a mountainous place of such sylvan beauty. “Daughter” is the standout here.

Funeral doom always strikes me as "heavy". I know, sounds stupidly obvious, but what I mean is something full and hard and heavy, like a hammer, or more like a storm with an oppressive atmosphere. But this album has sharp edges all around it, cutting through the heaviness, keeping the ponderous, dark clouds afloat.

On paper, zeuhl should be among the warmest of all genres, meaning that in theory the lifeblood of the music is hot. But in reality, the music is cold, like space, with a dread vastness about it. I guess I just can't separate the genre from its roots in Vander's vision. Anyway, perhaps there is a warmth to it, but it is only an effect, not a source. It vivifies the life left on a world after the creators, through song, terraform the planet out of its barren coldness.

Weird enough for me to take seriously. This album was released on cassette only in 1981 but was actually recorded before the band’s official debut album (just released after). So this album is Eskaton’s Let It Be. The music is like Magma, but the lyrics are in French, not Kobaïan.

Apneseth and Ratkje met on the opening day of a five-day music festival, and sparks immediately flew. They had an impromptu concert right there on the spot, and like others before them who were confident in their craft and in their expressive powers, they took that improvisation into the studio, reworked their magic in a more controlled setting, and recorded this little gem. I knew the music of both these artists before I ever came to this collaboration, so you can imagine my delight. Apneseth's mysterious hardanger fiddle and Ratkje's experimental vocal work? Yes, please!

Soothing, meditative music featuring the ney (Persian flute) and the frame drum. The album starts off a bit tame, but things get a bit more interesting by track three with the interplay of the albeit sparse instrumentation. An excellent companion to letting your mind wander.

Pleasant, easy to listen to, catchy in a whimsical 90s film soundtrack kinda way. These guys clearly had a lot of fun making this album, but, alas, it's not for me.

A useless, pointless, irrelevant album.

I'm tired of well-regarded shitty music.

The worst of both worlds.

There's a reason why so many "musicians" work the checkout lane at the supermarket.

I was led to this opera at last through the film The Father, a magnificent stage adaptation that has pretty much nothing to do with this piece, except that it is heavily featured in the film as, perhaps, a parallel to the main character's slow death of the mind. Perhaps. It intrigued me, because I am familiar with "The Cold Song", an aria in this opera that Klaus Nomi made somewhat famous by recording it with all his dramatic vocal panache. What pushed me over was the fact that Gardiner conducted this recording. All right. If he took the time to conduct this opera, it must be worth a listen.

Purcell named this opera King Arthur, but it has very little of the Celtic King in it, focusing much more on pastoral pagan scenes peopled with pagan characters of all kinds, from nymphs to gods. The English poet John Dryden wrote the libretto, and it reflects his straightforward style. No need for interpretation here. One theme that is touched on more than once is the popular 17th-century one that believed love was the province of youth and that one should not waste time in doing what one ought, exemplified in the contemporary poem, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time".

After Arthur's victory in Act V, the opera suddenly turns rather nationalistic. Venus falls in love with England. Like, with the island itself. Comus arrives, heralding the festivities of the harvest, and the English peasants--equal to any Continental gentry, mind you--dance and sing and put aside all that pagan silliness. Actually, Arthur kind of disappears, too. A strange ending, to be sure. Everybody clapped. Obama was there.

These guys sound a lot like Yes. I mean a lot. It looks like they tried to rise when punk rock was becoming popular, and thus they quickly deflated, but that doesn't mean the music here isn't good. They do a lot with their basic instrumentation and vocal harmonies. Are they breaking any new ground? No. Are they enjoying well-tilled soil and making a great album for prog rock fans? Yes.

This is something I'd expect to hear in a tavern after out adventuring all day. This is a bard group that's traveled the lands, collected songs, and now go about lightening the hearts of heroes. Grab and mug of mulled wine and pull your chair up to the fire.

Not as intimate and warm as their earlier album, this one is more like the bard troupe has leveled up beyond playing taverns and are now featured at the Civic Festhall.

A charming little vista into Wales’ pastoral, pious past, this album was recorded by Emyln in his kitchen using only a four-track recorder. There’s a strong focus, of course, on the lovely harmony of the soft vocals, but there are also flourishes of fanciful psychedelia here and there in the instrumentation. Emlyn sings the traditional music of Wales with such restrained passion and flowering beauty that I can almost see the artist wearing leeks.

Abraham Lincoln would like to have a word.

A lot of music nerds shit on this band because they think ELP is pretentious, just showing off for hours and boring their listeners to tears. But that's just showing off. That's not pretension. They're all about setting a mood; it's about building a sonic environment in which one can play and explore. The people at the concert seem to dig what ELP is doing.

Old woman whose voice holds a lifetime of experience and confidence teams up with a rock band to put another notch in her axe. Not much more I can say about this, since I don't understand the lyrics, but it's a fun romp.