Luigi Nono/Mauizio Pollini - "sofferte onde serene..." Vinyl, LP, Album, Germany, 1979 (Deutsche Grammophon)

My knowledge on the Italian composer Luigi Nono is limited, and I have only this album "sofferte onde serene..." and a compilation with Berio and Maderna.   I have an interest with composers of the 20th-century who used magnetic tape as part of the ensemble, and Nono is no stranger to the tape machine.  Here Nono has the noted pianist Maurizio Pollini play along with magnetic tape that is haunting and very mood sturring.  It's music to wait for an upcoming storm.  And that storm is "a floresta èjovem e cheja de vida."   A composition with magnetic tape as well as clarinet played by William O. Smith, who was an original member of Ennio Morricone's (and others) Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.  

a floresta èjovem e cheja de vida" is very much rooted in the Vietnam War, and Nono was very much against that war.   The texts in this piece are from various sources and mostly from the Left.  A haunting work as well as the first piece on this album. 

Robert Wyatt - "Comicopera" Vinyl, LP, Album, 2 x Vinyl, one etched with poem, 2007 (Domino)

Robert Wyatt is one of those artists that you either love obsessively, or you don't know him or his music.  I think it is impossible for someone to hear him, and go 'not interested.'  His melodies are seductive, and the voice is hairy, yet romantic when he's crooning, and he mostly sings as if he is Chet Baker, and there are a thousand women in the waiting room, just waiting for him.   "Comicopera" although there are other releases where he collaborated with another artist, or compilation/re-issue came out, and I believe this was his last solo album.  He reportedly retired, and if that's true, this 2007 album is a brilliant goodbye.  Or perhaps just a pause before something else happens.  Still, a remarkable record that is very open.  His masterpiece "Rock Bottom" I find very close off to the world.  This is Wyatt getting involved with lots of musicians such as Paul Weller, Phil Manzanera, Eno, and others.  There are traces of late Beach Boys in the mix as well as Charlie Haden's Freedom Orchestra.  Just a beautiful mixture that does its job.  A haunted cocktail of a drink that sticks to your system.  

Matthew Edwards and The Unfortunates - "The Birmingham Poets" Vinyl, LP, Album, 2019 (December Square)

Matthew Edwards has the knack of writing very literate and smart pop songs.  If I'm drawing a map of similar taste artists, it would include Vic Godard, Lloyd Cole, David Bowie (his later album "Hours" comes to mind), and Mickie Most-era Donovan, with a touch of Jacques Brel. Shamefully tuneful, but with a bite that stings.  "The Birmingham Poets" is an album short in length, but also I tend to play the record over again once I heard it for the first time.  Matthew and his band The Unfortunates do beautiful arrangements that are chamber pop like in one moment, but it also has a strong cinematic or visual sense as well. 

"California, Can You Wait?" is a song that drills into your sub-consciousness due to its catchy melody and chorus.  Yearning for and wanting something so special that is so close, but one can't touch it. Birmingham England is very much the location or the emotional home and Edwards' words reflect an observation that is both slightly nostalgic, but also biting.   There is a Nöel Coward sensibility in that he can convey the everyday of life as something special in its small moments. 

"Birmingham Poets" is an album that sticks to you, as Lou Reed/Mo Tucker once sang, like glue.  No need to remove the record, because, by desire, you will play it again and again. 

The Kinks - "A Strange Effect" Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM, Unofficial Release, 2004 (Zönophone)

From around 1963 to 1973, Ray Davies never wrote a bad song or performance.  His genius at being consistently great in writing a song is a remarkable feat.   Which I know sounds overwhelming the man and his material, but for me, it is like I have a bullseye drawn on my heart, and Ray's music always hits that bullseye.  I pretty much have all the official Kinks releases of that decade or 10-years of music making, but recently at Disk Union in Tokyo, I purchased a bootleg E.P. just due that I love the song "A Strange Effect" which the only version I know of, is the Dave Barry recording.   These four songs on the E.P., are all studio recordings, and I suspect they were demos, that somehow never made it onto a Kinks album at that time for whatever mysterious reasons.  Finding these songs is like finding a new item in the ice cream department of your local grocery.  A unique flavor, but something favorite of yours as well. 

"A Strange Effect" is very typical Kinks, yet at the time it sounds a new direction for the artist and band.   It is not one of his observation songs, but a tune that is direct as "You Really Got Me," but done in a manner that is complex and many layers of feeling.  It has a hypnotic melody with an exquisite Ray vocal that sounds slippery, even drunk, yet his intelligence comes through in such a way that gives this song notice.   The other remarkable song on this E.P. is "I Go To Sleep," which is a beautiful ballad.  I have heard the version by The Pretenders, Cher, and Peggy Lee, all remarkable, but Ray's/Kinks version is of great delicate beauty.   I can imagine the classic era of Sandie Shaw covering this song due to her ability to sing intricate melodies, which seems simple but ain't. 

"Tell Me Now, So I'll Know" and "A Little Bit of Sunlight" are the other two songs (four altogether) and they too are missing Kinks gems that need to be in the spotlight.  A remarkable object of deep affection.  

Alain Goraguer - "J'irai Cracher sur vos Tombes" OST, Vinyl, 7" 45 rpm EP, 1959 (Philips)

I have a bit of history with Alain Goraguer, in the sense that I published with my press TamTam Books, J'irai cracher sur vos Tombes (I Spit on Your Graves) by Boris Vian.  Vian had a love and hated relationship with this book due that he got into much trouble with the law on this title, as well as loathing the film version of his novel.  Also, the fact that he died during the screening of this film, sort of makes this a cursed book/film.  Still, and even Vian agreed, Alain Goraguer is a fantastic musician and composer.  

I had the music as a download for years but had a hard time finding the original edition of this classic.  Until I found a copy at HMV in Shinjuku Tokyo.   In pretty great condition, and with a price of around $30, I purchased this piece of history.   The EP is approximately 10 minutes long, with six pieces, but an essential work by Goraguer.   

His most famous work in the English speaking world is his electronic soundtrack to the animated film "La Planète Sauvage," but sadly it ends there with most listeners of that work.  Goraguer is a jazz pianist who also played and arranged the early Serge Gainsbourg records of the 50s,  as well as working with  YéYé teenage acts of the 1960s.  Throughout that decade up to the 80s, he worked on with other French artists and wrote and performed various soundtracks, including adult films.  Whenever I see his name on the record label, either as artist, arranger, or his orchestra, I pick it up and never am I disappointed with the music or recording. 

Goraguer also wrote songs with Boris Vian, and it is probably due to this relationship that he composed the score to "I Spit on Your Graves."   A haunting melody, it is a perfect film writing score that shows all of Goraguer's strength as a composer and artist. 

Twinkle - "Golden Lights" Vinyl, LP, Compilation, 1996, UK (RPM Records)

Twinkle is the ultimate 1960s British teenager, who is also a songwriter and pop singer.  Born wealthy, and had a sister who wrote for the British music fan magazines of that time, knew and went out with a lot of rock n' roll people.  Never released an album, but a series of 45 rpm singles, Twinkle's music is remarkable.  An excellent lyricist, one of her great songs is "Golden Lights," which is a fantastic groupie-like view of a loved one whose name is in the neon lights of a theater. It's visual power, and beautiful melody is pop-divine. 

"Terry" is about a boy who dies on a motorcycle.  It is just as great as any The Shangri-Las' recording, and the difference is that it's quiet in a British manner compared to the Shadow Morton world of East Coast cinematic sounds. There is even a version of Serge Gainsbourg/France Gall's "A Lonely Singing Doll."  This 17-song compilation doesn't have a weak link. 

If a comparison is to be made, I think of Gillian Hills, who also wrote her songs, as well as being an iconic figure both in the UK as well as in France.  A remarkable collection of pop music.  

Gong - "Camembert Electrique" Vinyl, LP, Album, France, 1971 (BYG Records/Acteul)

My old friend Gary introduced me to this band around 1972, and I couldn't get my head around it.  Just too hippy, crazy, too foreign, and in other words, too odd.  Still, on the same day, he also played me early Kevin Ayers, and that too was a challenging listening experience for me.  Decades later, either out of boredom, my jet-lag sensibility, I purchased this album at Rockaway Records in Silver Lake.  Now, as I listen to Gong's "Camembert Electrique" I think it's a masterpiece.

Daevid Allen started the group (if memory serves me correctly, I was put off by the spelling of his first name as well as disliking the album) and somehow ended up in France.  A band, a cult - I'm not sure.  There is for sure a thought that they live on a planet called 'Gong,' but a world that had instruments, that's certain.   Still, the music is brilliant.  Hypnotic, melodic, and in places, reminds me of David Bowie of the Ziggy period.  There is also touches of The Soft Machine, which should be no surprise because Allen was a founding member of that band.

The other voice beside Daevid is Gilli Smith, who has a sinister whisper and adds a certain intensity to the mix.   For a bunch of French/British/Aussie Hippies, they are very tight and focused.  It's psychedelic for sure but has a robust rock approach to their overall sound. This is my first entrance into the rabbit hole that's Gong.