Henry Cowell - "The Piano Music of Henry Cowell" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1963 (Folkways Records)

Henry Cowell is an amazing composer and a brilliant pianist.  Famous for his cluster notes, and stroking the piano strings, he's to me the melodic John Cage.  "The Piano Music of Henry Cowell" is the perfect introduction to his music and aesthetic.   Oddly enough, "Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance" melody sound similar to The Yardbirds' "Still I'm Sad."  The closest composer I can compare him to is Erik Satie.  Both write strong melodies, but there is a genius aspect of what they both do.  Cowell is more upbeat and mixes the ugliness of cluster with the harp-like strokes of the piano wires and the beautiful melodies.   Throughout the album, Cowell announces each title of his composition as if he was lecturing in a classroom.  There is also a talk by the composer at the end of the album. Essential! 

Various - "L'Italia E Nel Mondo" 2 x Vinyl, Compilation, Deluxe Gatefold Sleeve (Modern Silence)

The Futurist mastered various forms of the visual medium of sculptures, painting, drawing, as well as photography, film, writing and of course, and not least, music. I have always been a fan of Luigi Russolo's Art of Noise pieces such as "ll Risveglio di una Citta." Russolo made these beautiful works of sculptures that are also noise machines in the year 1912 or so. These early recordings are the foundation of experimental music. It fits in the world equally with John Cage's more noisy compositions as well as the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS). So, this alone is worth getting the album. The other pieces of interest are Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's selection of him reciting his very verbal poetry. What is disappointing about this package is that Discogs list the tracks, and they are wrong. If you go to the Forced Exposure website, you will get the proper artists. I would have preferred the Discogs listing than the record I have now. What's missing is Luigi Grandi and others. The correct list of artists is Antonio Russolo, Rodolfo De Angelis, Alexandr Mossolov Eiar Orchestra Victor De Sabata, Arthur Honegger, Dixon Cowell, Julius Ehrlich, Paul Whiteman, Walter Ruttmann, and George Antheil. As well as Marinetti and Luigi Russolo. 

All of the above are great, but The Italian Futurists influence most of these artists, but not part of the Italian art/political group. Whatever happened to the original (if even that is so) list of artists is a mystery.  The original listing of tracks would have offered a more accurate representation of Futurist music. Although technically the label Modern Silence is a bootleg company that focuses on the avant-garde, it is still an excellent record label with fantastic packaging. For instance, "L'Italia E Nel Mondo" album design is an Italian wrapped newspaper full of text from the Futurists.  The album is a limited edition, and still, a great purchase. 

Erik Satie/Reinbert De Leeuw - "Vexations" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1983 (Philips)

Not the easiest piece of music by Erik Satie to find, especially on vinyl, still, this is one of the remarkable works that came out of the 19th-century.  Music historians think that Satie wrote"Vexations" in either 1893 or 1894, but no one knows for sure.  At times, seen as a joke, or at the least, exposing Satie's sense of humor.  The piece as it is written or notated is that the theme is played 840 times, which in theory, can last for 24-hours if one performed this work in a live setting.  John Cage did that and organized the first public performance of "Vexations" in 1963.

There are only a handful of recordings of "Vexations," and easier to find on CD. Perhaps that is the best medium because a CD can last for 80 minutes.  I have some of those recordings, but I'm a fan of Reinbert De Leeuw's recording of "Vexations" which lasts 26 minutes on each side of the album.  The music was recorded in 1975, and this edition of the LP was released in 1983.  I'm not sure about this, but I suspect that this may be the first recording of "Vexations."  It's a work of mystery, with no real notes from Satie, except that it should be played 840 times, and there is no mention or instructions beyond the score itself.

For me, "Vexations" is a haunting yet beautiful piece of music.  I love Satie's work, but I think "Vexations" is his masterpiece.   Simple, yes, but an exquisite melody that when played over and over again it puts me in a state where I can both think or concentrate on a work of writing (my main occupation) as well as drift off to the melody of "Vexations."   One can look at it as a Fluxus aesthetic, or a joke, but the truth is, this is remarkable music.   Sometimes a joke can expose the inner-beauty of a work of art.   

Ennio Morricone - "Ecce Homo, I Sopravvissuti" Vinyl, LP, Album, OST, 2002 (Dagored)

Ennio Morricone's "Ecce Homo: I Sopravvissuti" is one of his more obscure works, but of course, it's excellent.  This is more of his small orchestration with strings, some vocals, but basically a chamber work.  There is also a thumb-piano mixed in with the strings, and flute.   The Chimes gives it a slight exotica feel, but it's music that is quietly intense.  

"Ecce Homo" is a film from 1968 and directed by Bruno Gaburro.  If the film is like the music, it has to be an intense viewing experience.  Although Morricone wrote for the screen, I feel his music works just as well as an independent music piece.  I have to imagine that the works here are incidental pieces - there is no major theme music, but just a series of music that's similar or plays with the major theme.  The great Edda Dell'Orso is the vocalist, and again, her operatic touches are magical and profoundly beautiful.  In sections, I think of John Cage's prepared piano music, but I think due that the piano (prepared piano?) and thumb-piano are used in a rhythmic manner.  Also noted is the conductor, the great Bruno Nicolai.  

V.A. - "Sounds of New Music" Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Limited Edition, Reissue, 2017/1957 (Modern Silence)

A remarkable album (document) from 1957, but recently reissued by the excellent record label Modern Silence.  Folkways Records put together a compilation of new experimental music, mostly focusing on the work of Vladimir Ussachevsky, who had a sound studio in Columbia New York, where he and fellow composer Otto Luening experimented with organic and electronic sounds to make music.  I have a small collection of both of these composers, and they never fail to give me great listening pleasure.  

The album is divided by the two sides.  The first side is focusing on experimentation but with real instruments, but often played in a new way.  For instance, the big two stars here are John Cage and Edgard Varese.  Cage is of great interest in this package because of "Dance" which is work on a prepared piano.   The composer attached rubber, metal and wooden objects to the piano strings which gives it a gamelan orchestration sound.  It's a beautiful piece of work that borders on exotica.  Varese is an orchestration ("Ionization") which uses siren but with different pitches.  The work here that really turned my ears around is Henry Cowell's "Aeolian Harp" which is a work for piano, but him or the performer playing the instrument by leaning fists, arms and palms across the keyboard, as well as plucking the piano strings.   This is the only work here that has a strong sense of melody.  Listening to "Aeolian Harp" reminds me of The Yardbirds' "Still I'm Sad."   Almost the same melody and I wonder if the band was familiar with Cowell's work.  

On this side is a work that I know of, and that's Otto Luening's "Fantasy in Space."  It's a flute piece that is manipulated by tape recorder.   It reminds me very much what Brian Eno did with Roxy Music, but this is twenty-something years earlier.    It's a piece that borders on exotica (now that's a genre that mixes quite well in experimental music) and of course, deals with the thought of space travel.  Perhaps finding that utopia that we can't have here on Earth.  Side one starts off with an early piece of music from Russia that sounds very much like Spike Jones, but more animated sounding - like Warner Brothers cartoon music.  And then there are orchestrations where they imitate the sounds of the factory, for instance, a steel mill.   There is nothing gimmicky about any of this music.  The roots of industrial music, recorded in the Twenties. 

Side two is more instructional where we can hear how a tape machine can change a sound, either by pitch or other filters.  Most of the work here on side two is by Ussachevsky, and like Luening's work, it's a remarkable set of beautiful sounds.  The album ends with an actual narration explaining how the composer Henry Jacobs made his "Sonata for Loudspeakers."  I'm not a huge fan of recorded lectures but this of great interest to anyone who's into the recording as a craft or art form.  Surely the first strains of sampling here.  And the final product (the composition) is really fantastic.  

Alwin Nikolais' "Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais" LP, Vinyl, Album, 2013/1959, (Cacophonic)

Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) started out by playing the organ in the silent films. When sound came in, he needed to expand his horizons, and he did so by studying scenic design, costuming, acting, puppetry, and music composition.   These field of interests led him to dance choreography where he could combine all his different mediums in one space.   He founded the Henry Street Playhouse in New York City in the 1950s, where he started to do multi-media presentations.  Nikolais wrote electronic music go with his performances, and here we have the aural results of sounds he made in the 1950s. 

In a similar situation as John Cage/David Tudor (and Eno), Nikolais' partner-in-crime David Berlin, operated and manipulated the sounds from the sound booth that looked over the stage.  Some of the music/noise were played by the dancers with such instruments as drums, bells, wood blocks, gongs, and rattles but all played through Nikolais/Berlin's electronic filters.  The music now is just as fresh as it must have been in 1959.  

When I was in the ARTBOOK store, I played this album, and I sold copies there and then.  By no means is it ambient, due to it being originally used as modern dance music - but a total pleasing listening experience, where the sound brings a sense of rhythm and dynamics.  It's interesting to note that Nikolais was the first person to purchase the first Moog analog synthesizer system.  Another electronic composer of great importance, yet I never heard of him till recently and when I bought this album "Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais."

John Cage & Lejaren Hiller/Ben Johnson - "HPSCHD" / "String Quartet No. 2" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1969 (Nonesuch)

Of all the compositions of John Cage, this has to be the most intense or insane piece in his catalog of goodies.   Co-made and written with Lejaren Hiller, this is Cage's first adventure in the computer world that existed in 1969.   First of all the title, HPSCHD (1967-1969) is the word harpsichord reduced to the computer's six-word limit at the time.  It consists of 51 electronic sound tapes and seven solo compositions for harpsichord, all played at once.  If you have the means, you can hear the album on the left channel or the right channel, or in this case both.  This is not only the weirdest stereo/hi-fi adventure but one that is a challenging listening experience.  The irony is that the music is written for an old keyboard concept, but done in the most advanced manner in 1969.   What I get here is clearly what sounds like four or five harpsichords with various sheets of electric sounds, that at times sound like a generator or bits and pieces of melody, but very faint.  It's a noisy, full volume lease breaker of a record.  I think with respect to Cage's works, HPSCHD is the most extreme in its attack, noise, concept, and in general, Nonesuch was a brave label of its time.  The total opposite of Cage's famous 4:33.  Silence and noise.   It's 21 minutes of a relentless attack, yet, listening to it the time goes quickly.  I love it. 

Flip to the second side, and we have Ben Johnson's "String Quartet No. 2"(1962) and performed by The Composer's Quartet.  It's a work that reminds me of Schoenberg.  It's a moody work and emotional compared to Cage and Hiller's concept of making music.  It's work that is dissonant in tone, yet the sound is very sculptural to me.  I hear, but I can see it as well. It's interesting to note that Johnson was a friend of Harry Partch, and helped him build his instruments.  And he also studied with Cage as well as Darius Milhaud.  Johnson was (or still is) working on the foundation or perhaps storm, where the contemporary composition and practices took place.  "String Quartet 2" is demanding but pays off well, especially in its ending which is very serene and quiet.  Unlike the other side!

John Cage - "The 25-Year Retrospective Concert of the Music of John Cage" 2 x Vinyl, Booklet, Limited Edition, 1959 (Modern Silence)

Ground zero for John Cage recording.  This phenomenal album is the essential document of a great concert that took place at Town Hall New York City in 1958.    Produced by Cage's good friends Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and filmmaker Emile de Antonio.   This is, at the time, was Cage's celebration of 25 years of composing and making music.   With the help of the art community, a concert was placed, and at this event, Cage and others performed his "greatest hits."  This is not only a document of a concert but also an important cultural moment that took place in Manhattan. 

David Tudor, Merce Cunningham, and Cage's wife, Xenia, as well as the composer, performed pieces in front of a hostile audience.  At least their catcalls mixed in with the bravos are clearly in the mix.  This is a real live recording!   Listening to the album, I really feel its presence in front of me.  There are not that many live albums that have that affect for me.   The works here are legendary, and Cage at the height of his creativity.   Beautiful packaging; this album is priceless to me. 

Christian Marclay - "More Encores" Vinyl, 10", 33 1/3 (No Man's Land)

It took me forever, but I found a copy of Christian Marclay's "More Encores" at HMV Shibuya near Tokyu Hands in Tokyo.   I had this album on my computer which I played consistently, but it really makes sense to get the vinyl edition, because that is the medium for this album.   Each selection is devoted to one recording artist or composer.  Marclay takes recordings of these artists and cuts them up, sometimes from the same song, or a mix with another recording by that artist.  

"Johann Strauss" the first piece is maxi-waltz, using a recording of his waltz as the foundation.  Which in turn is what the whole album is about.  Marclay comments on the recordings as well as make it as a tribute to that composer.  "Martin Denny" is just as dreamy and strange as any other 'normal' recording of Denny's music.  Marclay just focuses on the beautiful touches of his music.  "Frederic Chopin" is rhythmic which is not one would think of Chopin's music - the melodies come first.  This is the most radical of his recordings here.  He truly makes Chopin in his own aesthetic. 

I find his aural artworks fascinating.  Especially if one is a fan of the vinyl record.  It takes an object that is very objective as the subject matter and turns it into a subjective instrument of expression.  DJ aesthetic, but Marclay also treats the music as a source or light to add his textures into the mix/piece.  The beauty of these recordings is that they very serve as a tribute or homage to these artists as well. "Arthur Ferrante & Louis Teicher" maybe weird, but it's not weirder than any Ferrante & Teicher recording.  It's like he's having a jam session with these artists, but not live, with their recordings. 

His "John Cage" is very rhythm orientated.   The original work I think is maybe the live radio pieces he did with David Toop, but I'm not sure, due that I didn't do any research on this before writing on it.  Just listen.   There is so much cultural music history here.  "Maria Callas" is beautiful.  The textural layers of her voice fit perfectly under the turntable skills of Marclay.  Released in 1989, this is very much an essential album for me to go back to again and again. 

Sonic Youth - "Goodbye 20th Century" 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, U.S. (Sonic Youth Records - SYR4)

For the past few years, I have been interested in purchasing 20th-century experimental/classical music on vinyl.   The medium of vinyl is important to me because I listen to music differently on vinyl than say through my computer.   For me, I like to jump into the aural landscape without being interrupted by words, things, or anything else around me.  So, yesterday I purchased an album that I have wanted to hear for awhile now.  "Goodbye 20th Century" (a great title by the way, especially since this album was recorded in 1999) is Sonic Youth performing avant-garde classical music by legendary composers.  Christian Wolff, Pauline Oliveros, James Tenney, John Cage, Takehisa Kosugi, Yoko Ono, Nicolas Slonimsky, Cornelius Cardew (a composer I want to be more familiar with), George Maciunas, and Steve Reich.  

I have the John Cage/Christian Wolff album, which I love.  I think that specific album was recorded in the early 1960s, and it's an amazing document.  Wolff actually worked with Sonic Youth in the studio for his two recordings on this album.   Of all the composers I find him to be the most Cage-like, but that is my take on the sound of his work.  I never read an essay on or by him, so I'm very much an amateur listener at this point.  "Burdocks" for me is great.   Having Christian Marclay on turntables on this track really adds an intensity to the piece.   But beyond that, I don't find any weaknesses on this album.  The other composer who is on this album, and covered by Sonic Youth is Takehisa Kosugi.   It's very much a collaborative work.   Besides the fab four, there is Jim O'Rourke (before he officially joined the band), and William Winant among others.

What impresses me is that this is very much of a Sonic Youth album.  With guest stars of course.  It's interesting to hear a rock band (in theory) covering the territory of the avant-garde.  They do so with a large respect for the material but also don't give up the core sound of Sonic Youth.  When Kim Gordon gives a vocal, it immediately reminds me of Ennio Morricone's film scores -especially when he scored horror/sexy films from the 1970s.  Come to think of it, Morricone would fit like a hand in a glove on this album.   An excellent album. 

V.A. - "Fluxus Anthology" Vinyl, White, LP, Limited edition of 500

Edited by Maurizio Nannucci, this is a superb collection of recordings from various artists from the Fluxus art movement.   Incredibly entertaining with many highlights, for instance, Joseph Beuys' pure pop song "Sonne stat reagan" to what sounds like a toilet flushing by Yoko Ono.  For me, the album is very musical, and clearly, there are moments here of great beauty and grace.   Nam June Paik's "My julilee ist unverhemmet" is bone-chilling perfection to me.  What sounds like an old recording of a Wagner like a piece of music, but slowed down with an overlayer of vinyl hitting the needle, becomes a sorrowful and moving work.  

It is an anthology, so it serves the purpose as an introduction to these artists.  Probably the most known work here is John Cage's "Radio Music (1956), " but it's the obscure works (at least for me) by artists I kind of heard of, but not really know their art.   Milan Knizak reminds me of Christian Marclay's broken records material, but I suspect since his selection on this album came from 1979, he may have been first.  "Broken Music Composition" is an intoxicating aural pleasure.  There is nothing really weak in this collection of sound art or pieces.  La Monte Young's "Dream House (an excerpt) is just incredible, Wol Vostell who I believe is a visual artist, expresses great intensity through his "Elektronischer dé-col/age.  Happening Raum, 1968," which I believe is an installation artwork, which has audio.  

Limited edition of 500, I strongly recommend those who have a passion for avant-garde art from the 20th century, to run out and nab a copy for yourself.  Great packaging as well.    The artists on the album are:  Eric Andersen (another highlight), Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Philip Corner, Robert Filiou, Ken Friedman, Juan Hidalgo, Dick Higgins, Milan Kinzak, Alison Knowles, Walter Marchetti, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Gen Vaufier, Wolf Vostell, Emmett Williams, Robert Watt, and La Monte Young. 

John Cage - Christian Wolff "John Cage/Christian Wolff" (Reissued; Jeanne Dielman)

With respect to John Cage, his "Cartridge Music" (1960) is probably one of the most extreme noise pieces ever.   What one can do with a phonograph pick-up!   Without a doubt, this album is a lease breaker and is also brilliant and of course, fascinating.  Cage and his right-hand man, David Tudor, which I have to presume they are probably like the Bowie/Mick Ronson team.  Cage visualizes the piece, and Tudor makes it happen.   Tudor generally a pianist, but one who not only plays on the piano but also inside and outside the piano.  Here on this recording, he and Cage do a rave-up that must have been awesome to see as well as being so forward of a sound/presentation in 1960.  

The other side of the album is three pieces by Christian Wolff.  Compared to the Cage side, this is easy listening music, but, with an edge.   David Tudor plays on two of the pieces.  The first work is "Duo For Violinist and Pianist" (1961).  The violinist Kenji Kobayashi.  It's an interesting work because it's about the relationship between the two instrumentalists.   It seems that Wolff instructed the musicians to start when they want to start, and the other makes responds to that sound.  The silence between the two players is also significant. It's like having a deep conversation with someone, and there is silence due that the person is thinking what the other is saying.  "Duet for Horn and Piano is the same as the above, but with Howard Hillyer playing the horn.   "Summer for Spring Quartet" (1961) is with a string quartet.  

There is a sense of theater with both the Wolff and Cage piece.  It works on an aural level, but I imagine to hear these pieces live would be awesome.  The conceptual aspect is interesting as well.  This is music that thinks, and then acts on the concept created by Cage and Wolff.  The musicians have to be in tuned to the composer's sensibility as well as trusting their own ability at the same time.   

The album cover design mirrors the much later Beatles' "White Album." One wonders if Richard Hamilton (the designer of the Beatle album) was influenced by the Cage/Wolff cover.   This is very much a fantastic piece of vinyl.   The original album came out in 1961, and it's great to hear music that was made by the composer or they were around during the recordings.  Essential. 

John Cage/Steve Reich/Michael Tilson/Ralph Gierson - "Three Dances & "Four Organs) Vinyl LP (Angel Records)

I had this vinyl album when it first came out in 1976.  I lost it over the ages, but recently found it at my local record store 'Rockaway' on Glendale Blvd.  It's a fascinating to hear these two very different pieces on one album. "Four Organs" is what it is - four electric organs playing the same notes over and over again, with maracas keeping the beat.   Written in 1970, the cords get longer, as the beat stays consistent.  It's meditative, but also really captures the listener's attention.  For me, I love the sound of the electric organ and having four of them going on the same time, is my vision of aural bliss.  This is the original recording of this work, played by Michael Tilson Thomas (a big figure in Los Angeles classical world), Ralph Gierson, Roger Kellaway and the composer himself, Steve Reich.  There is a much more recent version of this work, and when I have time, I will compare the two. 

Side one belongs to John Cage. Thomas and Gierson on two amplified prepared pianos, and it's intense.  Cage wrote this piece, "Three Dances" in 1944, and it is punk like in its attack on the altered pianos. It's beautiful, yet very foreign sounding.  The interesting point here is that Cage looked beyond the piano keyboard to find or make new sounds out of the standard instrument.   Very rhythmic, with layers of sound on top of it.   To meditate and reflect.  The duo that never gets old. 

John Cage - "Cheap Imitation" (Cramps Records/nova musicha n. 17) Vinyl LP, Reissue

"Cheap Imitation" is a very beautiful listening experience, but it also has a witty or amusing side story attached to the work.  It's a solo piano piece composed, and here on this recording, played by John Cage.  It's based on Erik Satie's "Socrate."  Cage arranged a piano version of Satie's symphonic drama, for Merce Cunningham's dance company.   Satie's publisher refused permission for Cage and Cunningham to use the music, so Cage composed music that draws on Satie's "Socrate," and in a sense it's a knock-off.   Nevertheless, hearing the Cage music, one is immediately reminded of Satie's piano music.  Cage made use of I Ching to compose "Cheap Imitation" yet like Satie's work there is both something haunting and ambient at the same time.  Compared to Cage's other works, this one is very much a composed piece of music for piano.    It's rare to hear Cage on the piano, due to how his music changed in the coming years, but also he suffered from arthritis, and that made it more difficult for him to play the piano. 

The album, according to the liner notes, was recorded on a rainy day on March 7, 1976, in Oakland.  It does have that contemplative effect while listening.  On the other hand, it also shows Cage's obsession and interest in Erik Satie's music.  "Cheap Imitation" is a work of originality but very much a loving tribute to the source: Erik Satie. 

John Cage ‎– "Sonatas And Interludes / A Book Of Music" (Tomato Records)

I used to own this album in 1977 (the year it was released) but had to sell it to Moby Disc for money for some reason I totally forgot.  Nevertheless, it has been in the back of my mind for 35 years of so. As I was taking one of my strolls down Glendale Blvd, I found a copy at Mono Records.  A great record store.  The best thing about a record store is when you go in to look for a specific album, and you find something else instead.  And usually something much better than the other record you're looking for.  The above John Cage album fits that category.  Prepared Piano pieces on a double album, and on the great Tomato Records label.   Beautifully mediative as well as intense.  How does two work together is sort of like enjoying a Tom & Jerry cartoon. You need the violence, as well as the pairing of the duo. 

Brian Eno - "Here Come The Warm Jets" Vinyl LP

Brian Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets

Vinyl LP, Album, U.S., 1974

Island Records

I was deeply shocked when I read in Rolling Stone Magazine that Eno left Roxy Music.  The most shocking part to me was Rolling Stone even acknowledging Roxy Music and Eno.  For sure i thought that they didn’t know the band.  At the time, only in the U.K. and perhaps Europe was there media coverage on Bryan Ferry and Company.  The second shock was Eno leaving Roxy Music.  How can that be?  I wasn’t worried about Roxy Music, but I was worried about Eno.  So in 1974 it was a duty for me to purchase his first (and perhaps last at the time) Here Come The Warm Jets.   Well, odd enough, I wasn’t prepared for the sound that came off the vinyl into my ears.  Sonically, I was totally sold.   The first cut off the album “Needles In The Camel’s Eye”  sounded to me like something out of The Velvet Underground’s second album White Light White Heat.  Just a mono sound of grinding guitars with his beautiful vocal fighting against the noise.  I loved it. I still love it.  In fact I love this whole album. 

The first Roxy album prepared me for the sound, and Eno continued using that mixture of sparse electronics and bleeps with distant surf guitar and strong melody.  Also the album is so beautifully planned out - there is not a bad or weak cut on it.  Each song in a sense introduces the next, and it strikes me now that this is a record can only be made in 1974.  Glam was slowly disappearing at the time, and here Eno was introducing a new sound that was glam-like, but yet, something else.  Maybe a hybrid of John Cage with a glam leaning.  I don’t know, all I know is this album is important the way Sgt. Pepper is important to the culture.  

And the one major influence I think is John Cale era Velvets.  Even the song title has a Velvets feel to it.  “Cindy Tells Me,” “Blank Frank,” “Dead Finks Don’t Talk” and so forth.  More New York than West London.   Nevertheless the beauty of “Some Of Them Are Old” and how it gently joins in the last song “Here Come The Warm Jets” is simply a wonderful series of moments.   Oh, and the cover is great as well.