But before I continue, a digression is warranted here. Yes, this is a record of what I’ve listened
to during the year, but the items I’ve documented in this blog are those which
I’ve played in their entirety during a specific day. There have been moments during the year when
I might have spare five, ten or fifteen minutes and want to play
something. When I do so, I will usually
play something from that day’s playlist or something that I’ve played during
the year to date. Snippets of the four
albums in question are played if I wanted something different to listen and in
each case it’s invariably been because the album in question contains a
sequence of tracks that I’ve found so irresistible that I keep going back. Even then, time factors prevent me from
playing either that sequence of the album in its entirety. It’s only when the album has been played in
full for the first time that I’ve added it to the blog and commented on it.
As it is, I have already commented on three of the four
albums this year. They are:
S + M by Metallica, or more specifically, the first disc of
the album which is as brilliantly sequenced as any live album I’ve ever
heard. The band’s performance is
faultless, the orchestra meshes beautifully and the opening two instrumentals
(the orchestra’s performance of The Ecstasy Of Gold and Metallica’s introduction
into The Call Of The Ktulu) seems to do the trick if I need an instant spot of
inspiration. The blistering Masters Of
Puppets which follows then functions as a form of exultation, particularly if
I’ve had to defeat a computer problem, in which case the refrain of “Obey your
master” is deeply satisfying.
Then there is Live At The Magic Bag, Ferndale, Michigan one
of The Supersuckers live albums. The
opening brace of about 6 tracks up to Creepy Jackalope Eye is just about the
most relentlessly exciting opening to a live set I’ve got in my collection and
the fake encore culminating with Born With A Tail is pretty damn good too. Although I’ve always loved this ever since I
bought, somehow it was the experience of driving around Northern Romania on holiday
last that embedded itself in my brain.
Maybe it was the combined influence of seeing some of the remnants of
the Soviet and Ceausescu
regimes, sites associated with Vlad Dracula and being in the Gypsy heartland
that resulted in this being literally the only album I played
there. Indeed, I found myself singing
Born With A Tail so often in public as I explored the various sites that “M”
was constantly threatening me with violence, which I found oddly endearing. On my return home, I’ve found playing the
album a hard habit to break.
And then there is the album that has had me transfixed for
the greater part of the year, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon. It’s usually been the Floyd album I’ve played
the least, mainly because of its overfamiliarity over the years. I started playing bits of it earlier this
year as a direct result of my posting about the sound of David Gilmour’s
guitar. After I wrote that, I went back
to that album, specifically to listen to his solo in Time. I put on my headphones, heard the clocks, the
tune, the solo and the segue into The Great Gig In The Sky and realised just
how great and self contained was the original vinyl side 1 of the album. (I would then usually switch off the album,
finding the cash registers at the start of Money a little bit too
distracting. But it was hearing it on
headphones for the first time in decades that did the trick and I’ve found that
first side almost irresistible to play when “M” and I retire for the night and
I find myself , for whatever reason, unable to sleep . Playing this has the effect of putting me
into another dimension that I’m well and truly asleep well before the Time
solo. Strangely enough, the clocks have only woken me up once.
This leaves me with just one more album, which just happens
to be the one that I play most often.
When today started I had no intention of playing it through, but my day
turned out to be such a stop and start one that I had effectively played it by
work day’s end. Oddly enough, in writing
this posting, I’ve realised that, in its own way, it is a release that
incorporates all of the features of the other three albums mentioned.
(# 679) Rammstein –
Volkerball. Live In Nimes (recorded 2005/released 2006)
This is Rammstein’s second and infinitely superior live
release. The standard edition, like my
copy, comprises a DVD of the Nimes and other live performances and a CD of
tracks from the Nimes with care taken in the track selection to minimise
duplication of tracks on the Live Aus Berlin set. The CD is (like the Metallica and
Supersuckers sets) brilliantly sequenced.
The opening track is an 2 minute introduction of pre gig crowd noise
(like the Supersuckers set), actually the soundtrack to the menu of the DVD,
that introduces the music as effectively as the other three. By itself, on headphones it is as effective
at night as the Floyd’s Breathe, and actually enhances the opening track, the
mournful yet heavy Reise Reise. This track
detonates a staggering sequence of tracks that equals the other two live
albums; Links 2 3 4 (a track set to a martial beat with lyrics espousing an
anti right wing political stance), Keine Lust, an over the top Feuer frei!
(these days known as the track that starts the Vin Diesel movie xXx), Asche zu
Asche, Morgenenstern and Mein Teil. By
then the momentum that has been built is such that the acoustic Los sounds
seriously out of place. Du riechst so
gut then picks up the pace and the band then charges home. Benzin is seriously heavy, crowd
favourites Du haust and Sehnsucht are
both delivered with greater power than on the Berlin live disc and Amerika
brings the main set to a satisfying close provided you’re not an American. Oddly, only two tracks from the encore make
the disc, but both Sonne and Ich Will wrap things up nicely although
personally, I would have dropped Los and replaced it with the cover of Depeche
Mode’s Stripped that’s featured on the DVD as it would have given it a greater
flow and unity. It is as strong a set of
industrial metal that anyone is ever likely to hear and I'm sure will be the soundtrack should I ever revisit Romania.
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