Select a starter pack of ten albums (or songs) to introduce a musical genre to someone unfamiliar with it. This is not necessarily the best ten of that genre but ones that should pique someone’s interest.
I’ll go first with Dub:
Keith Hudson – Pick A Dub
Yabby U – King Tubby’s Prophesy of Dub
Augustus Pablo – King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown
Lee “Scratch” Perry – Super Ape
Joe Gibbs and the Professionals–African Dub Almighty Vol. 3
LKJ In Dub
Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Vampires
Mad Professor- No Protection
The Breadwinners – Dubs Unlimited
Vin Gordon & The Real Rock Band – Heavenless
->
Great idea. Although, with the proliferation of genres now, ten could be the entire pack for some of them..
K-pop:
BTS 2cool4school
All you need right there….
I fear just one is too much for me.
Think you need Mikey Dread – African Anthem in there, plus some modern digidub, but no idea what you’re taking out to accommodate them.
I’m going to have a go at metal. A starter pack completely off the top of my head, no doubt with some shocking omissions
Black Sabbath – Paranoid (the source of the Nile)
Slayer – Reign In Blood (thrash masterpiece)
Metallica – Master Of Puppets (also thrash, but much more considered and structured than Slayer)
Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (the biggest band in 80s metal, this side of the pond at least)
Deafheaven – New Bermuda (representing the experimental questing side of extreme music)
Electric Wizard – Dopethrone (for the stoner and doom fans)
Sepultura – Roots (this is as close as I can come to picking a nu metal representative)
Nine Inch Nails – Downward Spiral (industrial)
At The Gates – Slaughter Of The Soul (an intro to death metal that retains a melodic touch so as. It to scare people off)
Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (to start you off on a journey into Norwegian black metal)
What is this that stands before me?
A list that starts with the second album?
Ye Dark Gods!
First one: yes it’s got the bell but still a bit too much in thrall to bloooze boredom
Second one: conquered the world
It’s a great list, but you don’t have anything between 1970 and 1984. I think what we now know as metal was codified around 1979-80 (dampened riffs, studded wristbands, denim & leather etc) so you need something from then: Ace of Spades, or Breaking the Law or In League With Satan. Something like that.
Quite an easy one I think:
Post punk:
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Gang of Four – Entertainment
PiL – Metal Box
Talking Heads – Remain In Light
Wire – 154
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Juju
The Cure – Seventeen Seconds
Magazine – Real Life
Television – Marquee Moon
Echo and the Bunny men – Crocodiles
Wonderful. I might swap Real Life for The Correct Use of Soap, but let’s not fall out over it!
“Curse Of The”
Before anyone else tackles it:
Appalachian Bluegrass:
In The Court Of The Crimson King (etc)
Larks Tongues In Aspic
The Yes Album
In A Glass House
Tarkus
Nursery Cryme
Back Into The Future
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
The Snow Goose
In The Land Of Grey And Pink
PS are we doing the ‘cast then?
What? A Progcast?
Very good – I disagree with all of them, tho but…
That’s a pretty fine list. The only thing I would change with be replacing Nursery Cryme with Selling England By The Pound (not only is it my favourite, I think it’s a little more accessible for someone being introduced)
But there surely has to be a gatefold sleeve with artwork from Paul Whitehead to get the best sense of their early bonkersness!
Foxtrot it is, then.
Tarkus?
Did you mis-spell Brain Salad Surgery?
TARKUS is correct
Here are 10 that for neatly into the Goth genre:
The Cure – Faith
The Cult – Love
The Sisters of Mercy – First & Last & Always
Joy Division – Closer
Cabaret Voltaire – 2×45
Bauhaus – In The Flat Field
Hoodlum Priest – Heart of Darkness
Siouxsie & The Banshees – Nocturne
The Jesus & Mary Chain – Darklands
The Damned – Phantasmagoria
Happy to have challenges to this. That first Sabbath album could have gone in here, VV, for example.
Take out Joy Division I beg you. Goth?! Never!
Replace it with Fields of the Nephilim’s Elizium and we are cooking.
Most bands who I put in the list wouldn’t recognise themselves as Goth – famously rejected over and over by the Sisters, for example. Fields of the Nelhilim (and I might take Dawn Razor at a pinch) would for for me in a starter for ten of 2nd division Goth bands – Gene Loves Jezebel, The Mission, Sex Gang Children, etc who wore their influences on their patchouli- scented, velvet paisley shirtsleeves.
I’m more tempted to add Suicide, The Doors, Velvet Underground – all their eponymous albums as progenitor of goth, plus several from the 4AD stable.
An interesting perspective. Goth is a mindset not a time.
How about Gaelictronica and Neo-Trad?
Martyn Bennett – Grit
Niteworks – A’ Ghrian
Shooglenifty – Solar Shears
Talisk – Abyss
Valtos – & Friends
Peatbog Faeries – Blackhouse
Paul Mounsey & Runrig – Proterra
Elephant Sessions – For the Night
Treacherous Orchestra – Grind
Mànran – An Dà Là
No Mouth Music?
That would be a good call, in truth.
I know very few of those acts and albums, so I look forward to rectifying that.
Grit belongs in a top ten of all time, IMHO. Blackbird alone gets it there.
In fact I wish I’d put it into my progressive music 10.
Could go in a top soundtracks list as well.
That album by The Treach is indeed a belter.
Martyn Bennett – Grit:
I’m going to tempt fate and be prepared for the backlash with some Blues…..
Albert King – Born Under A Bad Sign
BB King – Live At The Regal
Fleetwood Mac – Pious Bird Of Good Omen
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers – Bluesbreakers (aka “Beano”)
Roy Buchanan – When A Guitar Plays The Blues
Muddy Waters – Folk Singer
Fantastic Negrito – Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
Buddy Guy & Junior Wells – Live in Montreux
John Lee hooker – Real Folk Blues
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram – 662
Obviously many many artists missing but hopefully a mix of classic blues (BB, Buddy Guy), Acoustic Blues (Muddy, JLH), British Blues (Mayall, Peter Green), Modern exponents (Kingfish, Fantastic Negrito – bit of a curveball) along with my all time favourite blues album (Albert King – it’s got the Stax house band on it – what more do you want !)
The Fleetwood Mac album was picked purely for ‘Need &our Love So Bad” which is essential for anyone being introduced.
Good list but no Howlin’ Wolf?
One of many many sacrifices – on another day he would have made the list. There are far too many varied and excellent blues albums to limit to 10….
Hoodoo man blues over Monteeux for buddy and my namesake.
I’d have to have Robert Johnson in there.
Are alternative lists allowed? Hope so. My alternative for Appalachian Bluegrass would be:
Red
Fragile
Angel’s Egg
Third (Soft Machine)
Tago Mago
Godbluff
The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage
Meddle
Space Ritual
Stand Up
That’s more like the thing!
I never regarded Pink Floyd as Appalachian Bluegrass. Nor Can for that matter.
Ah yes: but that’s how people who don’t like Appalachian Bluegrass justify liking the Floyd. Or Can, for that matter…
I’m sure there have been whole threads or parts thereof devoted to that particular argument.
Hammill vocals apart that’s a nice little list.
Meddle would have been my Floyd inclusion, if I’d had one.
Punky Times
Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks
Damnd – Damned Damned Damned
The Clash – The Clash
Stiff Little Fingers – Inflammable Material
The Underones – The Undertones
Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady
Ramones – Ramones
Dead zkennedys – Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
X-Ray Spex – Germ Free Adolescents
Stranglers – Rattus Norvegicus
I love the idea of a band called the Underones. What would their songs/albums be?
Infant Kicks
Learning To Crawl
Mother’s Milk
More Songs About Rusks And Rattles
ARF!
I’d swap out Singles Going Steady for Another Music in a Different Kitchen.
Couldn’t decide between the 2, and went for the compilation.
Also had internal arguments about Ramones vs Rocket To Russia, and Rattus vs No More Heroes.
I feel your pain.
‘Progressive’ British jazz (from 1966 to about 1975)
Extrapolation (John McLaughlin)
You Are Here … I Am There (Keith Tippett)
Child Song (Henry Lowther)
Integration (Amancio D’Silva)
Song For Someone (Kenny Wheeler)
Noisette (Soft Machine)
Greek Variations (Neil Ardley)
Metropolis (Mike Westbrook)
Down Another Road (Graham Collier)
Tanglewood 63 (Mike Gibbs)
Now this is the kind of detailed knowledge of a niche genre that I was looking for!
Excellent choices!
Good list. However, I would include Hum Dono by Joe Harriott & Amancio D’Silva, Change Is by the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet, Pendulum by Mike Taylor and Kaleidoscope of Rainbows by Neil Ardley. These would replace Keith Tippett, Integration by Amancio D’Silva, Soft Machine and Kenny Wheeler. Clearly, ten is not enough!
OK, here’s a possible Starter for 10 for prog:
Nickel Creek – Nickel Creek
I’m With Her – See You Around
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Uncle Charlie And His Dog Teddy
The Louvin Brothers – Satan Is Real
Jerry Douglas, Russ Barenberg & Edgar Meyer – Skip, Hop & Wobble
Molly Tuttle – Crooked Tree
Leon Hunt – Miles Apart
Bill Monroe – Blue Grass Time
Del McCoury – A Deeper Shade Of Blue
Various artists – Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Hard to argue with any of that.
Good to see the I’m With Her wimmin in the list, but I would put thei 2nd, Wild and Clear and Blue, in instead, a much classier production altogether.
Nickleback
Umm … move along, nothing to see here
Where did you read that name?
I don’t mind them and I don’t care who knows. “All the Right Reasons” is top stuff.
Glam Rock:
T. Rex – Electric Warrior
Slade – Slayed?
David Bowie – Aladdin Sane
Roxy Music – For Your Pleasure
Sparks – Kimono My House
Lou Reed – Transformer
Queen – Sheer Heart Attack
Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies
The Sweet – Desolation Boulevard
The New York Dolls – The New York Dolls
*I would have legitimately put Paul Gadd’s first album in there, but…y’know.
Good list but I’d have Ziggy Stardust and School’s Out.
I think Ziggy and Billion Dollar Babies are easier entry level albums.
On this one I’m standing my ground. Schools Out is a masterpiece.
I debated between Ziggy and Aladdin, but chose the latter because it’s kinda Ziggy but one louder.
Yes either would do fine for the objective but “Starman”.
Shame there’s no room for Wizzard.
Wizzard never made a great album. And Jean Genie is the definition of Glam, more so than Starman.
Yes but every Glam fan gurgles about seeing Bowie do Starman on TOTP. Even if they were 3 at the time.
I actually did, and have the single to prove it.
Starman on Top of The Pops … I sometimes wonder how many people actually saw it. Viewing figures that week must’ve been about 30 million.
Similar legend with Sex Pistols at Free Trade Hall or Velvet Underground debut album.
Most of the tellies in Britain were tuned in.
Queen Bitch on OGWT five months earlier, less so but an equally iconic moment.
I remember reading that the Starman TOTP appearance that everyone thinks they remember seeing was actually the Christmas TOTP version rather than the one that was shown when it was in the charts. Maybe one reason why so many people claim to have seen it.
I saw it on 6th July on holiday at my Aunty’s in Taunton. Noted in my diary!
Jean Genie’s the one I remember on ToTP. I remember exactly where I was sitting and I can remember my mum doing the ironing in the corner of the room while it was on.
Yep – Jean Genie over Starman, if we’re talking Glam rather than Bowie.
Exactly. JG has the sparkly 50s stomp required for thumbs in belt torso twisting glam boogie.
Starman was such a huge event it was at no. 1 for 5 weeks.
There’s your proof.
Not sure if you’re casting your usual aspersions regarding ‘the Sainted’, but to clarify, Starman only reached No 10.
Top list – and with the tigger-edit below, and even topper list.
Would I find room for The Slider and the 2006 re-issue of Wizzard Brew (the one with the singles tacked on)?
The Slider vs New York Dolls – I think The Dolls win (just, and as Electric Warrior is there may not need more T.Rex).
Wizzard Brew – without the singles, it’s not really an “entry point”. With the singles it (just about) fits the bill, but … still not sure it beats The New York Dolls
I pondered over The Sweet’s inclusion, to be honest. I mean they were undoubtedly emblematic of the genre, but their albums tended to be more expressive of their hard-rock leanings. I think a singles comp would have been much more representative of their glam credentials, but I didn’t want to fall foul of Tigger’s Draconian rules.
But … Desolation Boulevard is well served in the single stakes with Fox On The Run, Six Teens, and Turn It Down. Plus a marvellous cover of My Generation
Y’know, I’m tempted to suggest The Slider instead of Electric Warrior – it might not be a better Bolan album: but I think it might be a more Glam album. Even the cover is more Glam!
Yep, I debated that too – but Bolan’s ‘invention’ of glam came even before EW, so I plumped for that one anyway.
I agree with Twang. I would also have the Mott album in there at the expense of the Sweet or the NYD.
Yes I thought about Mott too.
The debate about albums here is interesting- surely glam was more about singles than albums anyway..?
Americana
Sweetheart of the rodeo (The Byrds)
Guitar Town (Steve Earle)
Guitars, Cadillacs Etc Etc (Dwight Yoakham)
Sailin’ Shoes (Little Feat)
The Band (The Band)
The Secret of Life (Gretchen Peters)
Voices in the Wind (Susy Boguss)
Pieces of the Sky (Emmylou Harris)
The Return of the Grievous Angel (Gram Parsons)
Trio (Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton)
Difficult…
I don’t think I’ve ever properly understood what Americana is. I’m willing to learn, though.
It’s Country only with fewer divorces, deaths and rhinestones per verse.
It’s country music played by rock musicians minus Nashville shlock. My list includes examples of chart friendly pop country which was one place it evolved.
“Guitar Town” is a good place to start Tig.
Sailin’ Shoes seems a little out of place? Maybe? Arguably?
Twang likes to include at least one Little Feat in all of his lists. 😄 But, that album is their most Americana, if I have a correct understanding of what Americana is.
With the notable exception of Willin’, I’m not sure that I would agree – but then again, I’m not an expert (like Twang…).
It just doesn’t seem to sit comfortably with the other albums on the list, IMHO.
Van Dyke Parks covered Sailin’ Shoes on his album Discover Americana. Trouble is a country ballad if ever there was one. Got No Shadow is dominated by lovely slide guitar and, surely Texas Rose Cafe must be an Americana title. Cold, Cold, Cold and Tripe Face Boogie are much more laidback than on Don’t Fail Me Now.
That’s just nit picking…
It’s more of a laidback blues album than a country-rock album, I would have thought. Don’t mind being wrong, tho…
I think the major difference is George’s slide. Which makes me wonder if Ry Cooder should be in there somewhere.
Eh?
@Twang – get in here and settle this before it all kicks off!
When you have Lowell you don’t need Ry. He only played on the first album because Lowell hurt his hand.
I meant: does Ry qualify as Americana? In which case, shouldn’t he have an LP in the list?
Country music has always had a strong flavour of the blues. I included it specifically because the Feat fuse the two so well, country and blues. Americana is more than just country rock, for me. This is not new – listen to Hank!
What about the Sounds of the New West compilation? Would that count?
Great album as is the Neon West NME tape but I assume we’re not including compilations.
Country-rock then. (Americana is a word invented for those with an irrational fear of country.)
I’d definitely have some Gene Clark in there, and maybe one of the first three Eagles albums. John Hiatt, The Flying Burrito Brothers and Lyle Lovett would be in my list for consideration too.
What’s that you say? You want some darkwave (with a tincture of goth)? Fill your boots with this lot off the top of my head that represent a broad introduction:
Blutengel – Tränenherz
The Birthday Massacre – Violet
Diary of Dreams – Nigredo
Mono Inc. – Welcome to Hell
Dead Can Dance – Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
Arcana – Inner Pale Sun
Projekt Pitchfork – Daimonion
Black Tape for a Blue Girl – Remnants of a Deeper Purity
Deine Lakaien – Indicator
The Crüxshadows – The Mystery of the Whisper
Fun for all the family (if your family likes tunes about death, vampires, nightmares, and things that are none more black).
If you want to know more, I’m happy to oblige.
You made those up, didn’t you? None of those albums exist.
Ha-ha!
I may be the only person in Britain who could tell you that the leader of The Crüxshadows is called Rogue, and that Black Tape for a Blue Girl have moved from darkwave and ethereal to chamber noir, but yes, they are all real and one day (ONE DAY!) these bands will conquer the world. And then, my friends, I will be acknowledged as a pioneer. A PIONEER! Bwah-ha-ha!
If you need a pointer about whether you want to join me ahead of the pack, here’s Reich Mir Die Hand by Blutengel (warning: vampires, and more blood than is probably good for you):
Fortunately, that video is age restricted. I must be too old. 😔
Synth-pop:
Sparks – No. 1 In Heaven
Spandau Ballet – Journeys To Glory
Soft Cell – Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
Tears For Fears – The Hurting
The Human League – Dare
Heaven 17 – Penthouse & Pavement
Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell
Pet Shop Boys – Please
Simple Minds – New Gold Dream
Yazoo – Upstairs At Eric’s
Synth pop without OMD!
(cough) New Order (cough)
New Order are much more synth-rock – guitars and bass are at least as prominent as synths in most of their work.
For that reason, on reflection I would swap Simple Minds for OMD.
I didn’t include Kraftwerk as I feel that they are more on a cerebral, arty level than straight-ahead pop, at least more so than the other suggestions.
Apologies if I’m coming across all Keir Starmery with my re-evaluations!
Power Corruption and Lies, surely!
That’s a great list and along the lines I was going to suggest. If I may :
Trans Europe Express – Kraftwerk
From the Tea Rooms of Mars…- Landscape
Replicas – Tubeway Army
Violator – Depeche Mode
Dare – Human League
Non Stop Erotic Cabaret – Soft Cell
Architecture and Morality – OMD
Speak and Spell – Depeche Mode
Upstairs at Eric’s – Yazoo
Please – Pet Shop Boys
If compilations were in the frame, I’d plump for Jean Michel Jarre’s “Essential” and New Order’s Substance. Also Kratwerk’s Minumum:Maximum.
Although I love New Gold Dream, I think it’s a more rounded traditional “band” set up with skilled guitar playing and real drums. New Order make it to this side of the ledger, however.
How about Cupid & Psyche, Tin Drum and Sulk? Sulk may be a too out there for a novice.
If you have New Gold Dream (synth with rock guitars), you should also have Vienna or Rage in Eden by Ultravox.
That was @Black-Type. However, I think Sleepwalk is one of the great synthpop singles. It doesn’t muck about.
@tiggerlion Lots of guitars/drums all over the place with those ones. C&P doesn’t feel like Synth-pop to me, even though I do love it.
I’d drop Landscape and Violator from that otherwise excellent list and replace them with Metamatic by John Foxx and A Secret Wish by Propaganda.
A Secret Wish is an awesome album. Somehow I struggle to recognise it as synth-pop but I’ll be darned if I can come up with something else
Euro-pop perhaps?
Euro-Synth-Sturm und Drang?
Art pop
If it’s Art pop, I’d suggest these artists as a starter for 10. (In some cases I had to guess which albums might be suitable):
Laurie Anderson: Big Science
Björk: Homogenic
David Bowie: Low
Kate Bush: The Hounds of Love
Christine and the Queens: Chaleur Humaine
Brian Eno: Another Green World
Pet Shop Boys: Actually
Propaganda: A Secret Wish
Roxy Music: For Your Pleasure
Talking Heads: Fear of Music
Art pop or art rock? Television and Roxy fit the latter. Talking Heads and Bowie too. Velvets, Lou Reed?
I suppose it comes down to whether your main instrument is an electric guitar or a synthesizer, to be reductive about it.
In which case, Low and For Your Pleasure probably quality but not Fear Of Music.
Maybe the Eno/Byrne – My Life In the Bush of Ghosts instead then?
I’m not sure. That album swims in a pool of its own.
Re: “That album swims in a pool of its own”
Maybe paddling around at the other end of the pool is Holger Czukay’s “Movies”?
Is that Art Pop, then?
Tu entrante para diez con música moderna de Colombia:
Bomba Estéreo – Amanecer
Systema Solar – Rumbo a Tierra
Choc Quib Town – Oro
Frente Cumbiero – meets Mad Professor
Totó la Momposina – Carmelina
LA33 – LA33
Petrona Martinez – Ancestras
La Mambanegra – El Callegüeso y su Malamaña
Ondatrópica – Ondatrópica
N Hardem – Verdor
Thanks. I need a way in.
There’s quite a range of genres within that list of 10, but there’s a Colombian, not to say Cumbian feel to all of them. Colombian music is SO wonderful – I recommend it to anyone, don’t worry about not understanding the words, just enjoy the music and the zest in the vocals!
👍
I’m definitely looking forward to this mini-visit to Colombia
Muchas Gracias @salwarpe.
–
My pleasure, KFD. I hope you find something you enjoy.
Britpop
Different Class – Pulp
Parklife – Blur
What’s the Story Morning Glory – Oasis
Coming Up – Suede
Elastica – Elastica
the It Girl – Sleeper
Urban Hymns – The Verve
I Should Coco – Supergrass
New Wave – The Auteurs
The Golden Mile – My Life Story
I have limited my choices to one from each band and My Life Story are in there because I would want to introduce more people to them
I was halfway through writing a Britpop 10.
Went for Definitely Maybe as it is a better album, but agree Parklife becuase it’s about Britpop, not which is the better Blur album.
Another difference of opinion: Suede debut for me.
Pulp: I tried to make a case in my mind for His n Hers, but Different Class is the right choice.
Elastica / Sleeper / Supergrass / Verve – all present and correct.
Ocean Colour Scene – Moseley Shoals should be there somewhere, and I’d argue for Space – Spiders, or Black Grape – It’s Great When You’re Straight… Yeah
But not if it meant losing My Life Story – an inspired choice
funnily enough was never really a fan of OCS but Black Grape would be a suitable inclusion and I could easily have put His ‘n’ Hers in.
And there is no way I will be losing My Life Story from that list
got a great run of gigs coming up from bands of that time Sleeper with Rialto as support and Echobelly with Babybird as support then My Life Story celebrating 25 years of Joined Up Talking in December
I struggle to explain why, but Urban Hymns isn’t a Britpop album. The party was over by the time it came out. The one before might be a better fit.
Different Class – Pulp
What’s The Story – Oasis (Definitely Maybe is better, but we’re not looking for better)
Elastica – Elastica
Suede – Suede (as good an opening 1-2 punch as anyone delivered in the 90s)
I Should Coco – Supergrass
Parklife – Blur
Tellin Stories – The Charlatans
Everything Must Go – Manics
A Northern Soul – The Verve
Grand Prix – Teenage Fanclub
You can make an argument for The Bends, but it’s not really a Britpop album at heart. Could also make a case for the first couple of SFA records.
I don’t know about the last two, but we should all try and work how much money you’d have to spend in a charidee to secure at least 8 of that initial list.
It’s significantly less than a pint of Guinness. Ouch!
This truly is a cultural inferiority complex visible from space.
I think the first Suede album is too early for Britpop. Dog Man Star is ok. (I think the first Britpop record was Parklife).
It’s a fair point. I went back and forth between the debut and Dog Man Star, but convinced myself that the former was permissible because it released within weeks of that Select cover with Brett Anderson and the Union Jack. It certainly felt like the start of something.
You’re probably right though. In the space of about 3 weeks circa Easter 1994 Kurt Cobain died and Parklife was released. That was probably the real starting line.
I’d axe the last two off the list and add in Expecting to Fly by the Bluetones and Wake Up by the Boo Radleys.
I really like that Boo Radleys album. You never hear anyone talk about it any more, and the temporary ubiquity of the title track has probably made it deeply unfashionable, but the second half, in particular, is full of gems.
Power Pop:
Big Star – #1 Record
The Posies – Frosting in the Beater
Jellyfish – Bellybutton
The Shazam – Godspeed The Shazam
Velvet Crush – Teenage Symphonies to God
Fountains of Wayne – S/T
Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend
The Bangles – All Over The Place
Cheap Trick – At Budokan
Farrah – Cut Out and Keep
Wot No Fannies? Though the first two albums are a bit gnarly by Grand Prix surely its pure power pop.
Definitely could be in there, yes, and Grand Prix would be the one for me.
Powerpop always feels an intrinsically US genre. Teenage Fanclub, whilst utilising similar forces of jangle, form more of a UK version. Probably not even that, as like the Fannies, most are Scottish. What I call Glaswegiana, irrespective of town or island of origin. Still a popular music form in the Big Tattie, as nobody calls Glasgow.
The Flaming Groovies are an obvious candidate here, and a Dave Edmunds album, probably Repeat When Necessary..?
Mixed by djs:
Coldcut – 70 minutes of Madness – Journeys by DJ
Sasha/Digweed – Renaissance The Mix Collection
Prodigy – Dirtchamber Sessiions
2 Many DJs – As Heard on Radio Soulwax pt 2
Sasha/Digweed – Northern Exposure
Kruder and Dorfmeister – DJ Kicks
Logical Progression – LTJ Bukem
Richie Hawtin – Decks, EFX and 909s
James Holden – Balance 005
Joris Voorn – Balance 014
Excellent!
Eurobal
Naragonia Quartet: Hellebore/Too late to sleep: schottische
Tri Yann: La Jument de Michao: an dro
Blowzabella: Black Lake and the Duck: three time bourree
Angles: Masher: schottische
Diamik: Mari ‘ra din c’hoarzin: plinn
Sonerien Du: Suite de Gavottes des Montagnes: what it says on the tin
Topette!!: Maybe Macedonian: schottische
Planchee: Du Zom Zom Zom: tour
Eelgrinders: Attingham Waltz: waltz
Les Costauds de la Lune: Bourree de Gaston Pouget / Bourree de Lesboulieres / Bourree de Joseph Perrier: bourrees d’Auvergne
Given that there are some on this site who may need a hand, I thought I’d let you know what you’ll be dancing to each of these sublime picks.
Despite my feet of (and in) concrete, I would expect to have heard of more of them than I have, with only The mighty Blowzabella, Topette and Tri Yann scratching my surface. The list has made damn sure I peruse the Naragonia Quartet before Shrewsbury.
By chance, have got to the letter S in my lengthy re-ripping to hard disk exercise, wondering whether you might wish to squeeze in a little Scarp. Lord knows if you can bal to it, but you sure as hell can bop, if my memory of Bracknell Folk Fest c. 1992 isn’t failing me. and a cracking album, made all the more memorably by the fact that Harry Dawes, the trombonist, taught at Stratford 6th Form College when, years later, my dter attended.
NWOBHM
Iron Maiden – Iron Maiden
Angelwitch – Angelwitch
Diamond Head – Lightning to the Nations
Saxon – Wheels of Steel
Samson – Head On
Def Leppard – On Through the Night
Witchfynde – Give ‘Em Hell
Girlschool – Demolition
Girl – Sheer Greed
V/A – Metal for Muthas
I know the rules were no compilations, but Metal for Muthas was such a vital part of the NWOBHM thing that it would be impossible to leave out. And it would also force me to try to come up with another NWOBHM album that’s worthy of consideration and I’m not sure there is one. To be honest, apart from the Iron Maiden album, most of these are pretty patchy anyway.
Judas Priest – British Steel?
Fellow travellers, but really they were more BHM than NWOBHM. They’d had half a dozen albums out before British Steel.
For consideration:
Venom – Welcome To Hell
Varnish- 100 MPH
Samson – Head On
Tygers Of Pan Tang – Spellbound
But yes, “patchy” is the key phrase
Head On is already in there and I remember the ToPT being one of the worst support bands I ever saw, so they’re definitely going in my top 10. Good call on Venom though. Who goes though? My vote is for Samson. I never much cared for Bruce Bruce and his silly screeching.
Yup, Samson out, Venom in. Apart from that, I can’t think of anything. That’s an excellent list. And kudos for including the underrated first Girlschool album.
I’m glad you did that @yorkio
Girl…fringes of NWOBHM for me. But that’s just nitpicking
Yeah, perhaps more NWOBHM-adjacent than part of the main event, I guess. But they were competing for the same support slots as their crustier peers – I remember them supporting UFO, ZZ Top and Kiss at that time. I think like Def Leppard, they always had their sights set on being big in America/Japan, which never really worked out for them, sadly.
Phil Collen got his wish joining The Lepps
(rumour was he was approached by iron Maiden, but lost out to Adrian Smith)
They definitely had ‘something’ , were a bit different to the rest of the usual suspects. Think they actually had stronger songs but as you say @yorkio it never quite happened.
Post-rock starter for 10:
Slint – Spiderland
Tortoise – Millions Now Living Will Never Die
Bark Psychosis – Hex
Labradford – A Stable Reference
Stars of the Lid – The Tired Sounds Of
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – F#A# (Infinity)
Kriedler – Appearance And The Park
Mogwai – Young Team
Tarwater – Silur
Jessamine – Jessamine
No Mono ?
The Japanese post rock band are one of the finest exponents of (instrumental) post rock. I would add “Hymn to the Immortal Wind”. Essential listening.
Duly noted Chris.
Were the last two Talk Talk albums post rock? If not , what were they?
@henry-haddock any thoughts?
Over-rated?
(Gets coat…)
You know what @fitterstoke? I kind of agree with you.
I’m a Talk Talk fan but really struggle with those last two albums due mainly to lack of structure, rhythm and erm, actual tunage.
I have long maintained that The Colour of Spring is their meisterwerk, a perfect melding of melody and their otherworldliness.
My pal @feedback_file has really tried to get me into TT but all I hear is over produced sludge with that dreary voice grinding on. I happily admit I’m the problem here.
Laughing Stock would probably qualify Freddy, though categorising artists as post rock is a tricky business. Some see the label as only being about instrumental music (wrong, I think). It’s about rhythm and texture more than melody. Vocals tend to be part of the overall fabric rather than a main focal point (something you could definitely say of Laughing Stock).
Ultimately, I think Talk Talk are kind of category-free. In a class of their own. Labelling them post rock would do them a disservice.
Psychedelic soul
Cosmic Truth (Undisputed Truth)
Sky’s The Limit (The Temptations)
Funkadelic (Funkadelic)
There’s A Riot Going On (Sly and the Family Stone)
The Time Has Come (Chambers Brothers)
Superfly (Curtis Mayfield)
Skin I’m In (Chairmen of the Board)
Mary, Don’t Take Me On No Bad Trip (Fugi)
The Politicians (The Politicians featuring Mckinley Jackson)
Cymande (Cymande)
Norman Whitfield was the master of psychedelic soul, producing the Undisputed Truth, The Temptations and Rare Earth. I have entered single albums here but two compilations – ‘Psychedelic Soul’ for The Temptations and ‘Smiling Faces: The Best of Undisputed Truth’ – are better introductions for both bands’ versions of psychedelic soul. I have a Spotify playlist for those interested.
Thar is a doozy of a playlist @Munster.
Ace stuff! Superb choices.
I’d argue Sly’s Riot is post-psychedelic, very much a comedown album. The earlier Stand!, however, definitely fits the bill.
One of my favourite genres. Thanks for the great playlist!
Nordic Jazz
Esbjörn Svensson Trio – From Gagarin’s Point of View
Jagga Jazzist – What we musr
Jan Johansson- Jazz på svenska
Goran Kafjes Subtropic Arkestra – The Reason Why Vol 1
Jan Garbarek – Visible World
Froy Aagre – Cycle of silence
Espen Eriksen Trio – End of summer
Jan Lundgren trio – Plays the music of Victor Young
Jonas Knutsson and Johan Norberg – Norrland
Tord Gustavsen – The Ground
I expect roars of complaint. No Danes. No Funns. Half of the list are Noggies
Roar! Appalled that there’s nothing from the Kallebäck contingent that dominated Nordic Jazz for several months in the summer of 1986.
Just a few months perhaps @black-celebration, but what months they were.
Was there ever a tighter Nordic combo ?
They were one of the main reasons I moved to Sweden.
I actually own a copy of their masterpiece, IN THE POCKET, the album that was to Swedish jazz what Sergeant Pepper’s was to dub reggae.
IN THE POCKET in mono and with the sleeve notes written in Elfdalian… it’s the stuff of dreams, KFD!
Ambient (not minimal classical, so no Glass, Reich, Riley, Richter etc)
Eno – Music for Airports (could have been Apollo soundtracks really as well)
Ashra – New Age on Earth
Tangerine Dream – Phaedra
Manuel Gottsching – E2-E4
Aphex Twin – Ambient Works vol 2 (or vol1 but I do prefer 2)
The Orb – Adventures beyond the Ultraworld
Biosphere – Substrata
Global Communication: 76:14
The KLF Chillout
Fennesz – Venice
Very clever. I think a novice would be impressed rather than repulsed. I like:
William Basinki – The Disintegration Loops I-IV
Tim Hecker – Radio Amor
Robert Ashley – Automatic Writing
GAS – Konigforst
Tetsu Inoue, Ambiant Otaku
and does Cluster & Eno count as separate from Eno, but I’m not going to quibble.
One of my favourites is a ‘various’ called “Musiques Pour Les Plantes Vertes”.
Tim Hecker and Gas bubbling under. Would get into a starter for 20.
Miles Davis’s electric period from 1969 to 1976.
A single artist and a short time span in his musical trajectory, but there are more than 50 albums available that cover this period and these are some of the best/clearest I have come across. Some very dense voodoo funk here and I would recommend the official albums first (the first three) before a deeper dive.
In A Silent Way (1969)
Bitches Brew (1970) (40th anniversary edition, with all tracks remastered and including an excellent concert recorded in 1970 just before an appearance at the Isle of Wight festival)
A Tribute To Jack Johnson (1971)
Live At The Fillmore East (March 7, 1970) (The last recorded concert with Wayne Shorter on sax)
Another Bitches Brew: Live Concerts in Belgrade (Two well-recorded concerts here: the first, with Gary Bartz on sax, runs for 67 minutes and was recorded in 1971; the second, with Dave Liebman on sax and with Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas on guitars, runs for 44 minutes and was recorded in 1973)
Vienna Stadthalle (1973, with Liebman, Cosey and Lucas)
Zimbabwe – The Boston Broadcast (1973, not crystal clear but it has a very laid back, 34-minute recording of Ife)
Live in Tokyo 1975 (with Sonny Fortune on sax. This was recorded a few days before Agharta and Pangaea and offers a slightly better recording of tracks that appear on those two awesome official releases)
Panthalassa (a Bill Laswell remix of tracks from the ‘difficult’ On The Corner album, among others)
Yo Miles (Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith give their interpretations of Davis’s music. Miles does not play on it at all but this is a good introduction to his music)
Bold of you to leave out Get Up With It. Also, I’m particularly fond of discs 5 & 6 from The Complete Cellar Door box.
Nevertheless, you should have been a participant on the Milescast Part 2!
Nice to see Panthalassa on this list. Very underrated.
Good to see Yo Miles! included. Re Panthalassa, there’s an interesting interpretation of ‘Bitches Brew’ in a concert album by Bob Belden’s group, Animation, plus DJ Logic. The first disc is mixed in 3D60, which claims to be a ‘fully immersive, three dimensional headphone listening experience’. The second disc includes remixes of the concert recordings by the likes of Bill Laswell, Grant Phabao, Youth and Joe Claussell. Recommended.
The Varied and Strange World of Omar Rodriguez Lopez for the curious…
1. Mon Laferte – Norma – big band latin diva music, arranged produced and conducted by Omar. There are videos of each track being done completely live at Capitol. Mon Laferte really brings it.
2. Omar Rodriguez Lopez – Old Money – an instrumental album that showcases Omar’s guitar playing and his ability to make albums out of the raw material of jam sessions.
3. El Trio De Omar Rodriguez Lopez – Ciencia De Los Inutiles – Omar on Acoustic plus some electric solos, Ximenia Sarinana on vocals and Rhodes, Aron Cruz Bravo on bass. – this is like a latin John Martyn with female vocals.
4. Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group – The Apocalypse Inside of an Orange – instrumental wig-outs, Money Mark on keyboards. This is one of the Amsterdam Series of albums, and the raw material of this one goes to form the backbone of…
5. The Mars Volta – Amputecture – hardcore prog that demands a lot of attention, but does eventually repay it. If you are going to do this kind of music, it’s best to go all-in.
6. De Facto – Megaton Shotblast – the core of the original Mars Volta make a very weird dub album.
7. At The Drive In – The Relationship of Command – widely acknowledged as a classic, and no list would be complete without it.
8. Omar Rodriguez Lopez – Corazones – it’s a singer-songwriter album, with a Smiths influence at times. Unusual in that it does not feature many of his regular sidemen. Sat in the can for years, seemingly.
9. Omar Rodriguez Lopez – Ensayo De Un Desparacido – a complete remake of his earlier album Xenophanes, in a sort of latin romantic style. The first track is seemingly a demo, but the rest is fully polished material that is more listenable than the original album (which was a Volta album in disguise).
10. Omar Rodriguez Lopez – Nom De Guere Cabal – this is a mix of the prog, hardcore, avant garde, and everything else, in one album that feels like being placed in front of a fire hose filled with science fiction.
That Omar Rodriguez Lopez seems capable of anything.
OK, then. Here we go:
Masterpieces of Renaissance music: 1480-1600
Johannes Ockeghem – Missa cuiusvis toni (1480-ish)
Jacob Obrecht- Missa Maria Zart (1504)
Josquin des Prez – Missa Pange Lingua (1515)
John Sheppard – Media Vita (1550s)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Missa Papae Marcelli (1562)
Thomas Tallis – Spem in Alium (1570)
Orlando di Lasso – Missa Pro defunctis (1580)
Tomás Luis de Victoria – Tenebrae Responsories (1585)
Carlo Gesualdo – Madrigali libro quarto (1596)
Anthony Holborne – Pavans, Galliards & Almains (1599)
At last a list that panders to us old hipsters.
That is a superb list, @DuCo01.
Is there a reason that you chose to list composers but not artists who have recorded these works?
I suspect the listener for choice with all of these works.
Oh excellent. I love anything Renaissance that I hear but I have no idea who anyone is or who to listen to so I’ll be exploring this list. Ta.
No room for Mother Russia?
No Parlez?
Black metal
1. Somberlain – Dissection
2. Black metal – venom
3. Bathory – bathory
4. Transylvanian hunger – dark throne
5. Saturnian bloodstorm – lamp of murmuur
6. Blackbraid II -Blackbraid
7. Tales of othertime – stormkeep
8. At the heart of winter – immortal
9. Reinkaos – dissection
10. De mysteriis dom sathanas – mayhem
Thanks Twang Jr…
Doom metal
1. Paranoid – black Sabbath
2. Epicus doomicus metallicus – candlemass
3. Dopethrone – electric wizard
4. Dopesmoker – Sleep
5. Griefs infernal flower – windhand
6. Empress rising – monolord
7. Monnos – Conan
8. Woodland rites – green lung
9. Lemanis – spaceslug
10. Masters of reality – black Sabbath
Again, thanks Twang Jr
I think Twang Jr has found two genres that render The Afterword speechless.
Obviously a child of good taste – three of those were in my overall metal starter pack upthread. And I did very nearly pick Transilvanian Hunger as well, which would have been in place of Bathory (a different Bathory record to Twang Jr’s pick)
Late-ish 20th Century Composers.
Pendereki – Symphony No.2
Dutilleux – Ainsi la Nuit.
Pärt – Spiegel im Spiegel.
Schnittke – Symphony No.3
Takemitsu – A Flock Decends into the Pentagonal Garden.
Ligeti – Atmosphères.
Ruutavarra – Piano Concerto No.1
Messiaen – Quartet for the End of Time.
John Adams – Shaker Loops.
I probably gave over more time to narrowing this list down than I did in picking what I consider to be hopefully accessible pieces to sample each composers work. Some of them have written some pretty challenging stuff tbh.
Oops. I forgot one…
Walton – Symphony No.1
Now we are talking! Half of those should frighten the horses.
Nice choice of Takemitsu and Ruutavarra, Mr P…
What now loosely and lazily gets called Celtic Punk, including the prime musical influences to the sound:
Pogues/Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
Waterboys/Fisherman’s Blues
Levellers/Levelling the Land
Oysterband/Deserters
Flogging Molly/Drunken Lullabies
Peat & Diesel/Uptown Fank
Ferocious Dog/The Hope
Shanghai Treason/Brave, Willing & Strong
Rumjacks/Gangs of New Holland
McDermott’s 2 Hours/Goodbye to the Madhouse
No Goats Don’t Shave? Heavens to murgatroyd!
Saw them once, supporting Oysterband. For a genre based on being derivative, they were too derivative.
No room for Dropkick Murphys?
It was them or Flogging Molly. I prefer Molly to the DMs (or, for that matter, Black 47)
Holy Bandits for Oysterband, shirley?
I was aiming more for the jig’n’clatter of Celtic Punkery. Many of the listed have “better” albums, or ones I prefer.
Disco consists of individual songs, preferably 12″ versions:
Sister Sledge – Lost In Music
Evelyn ” Champagne” King – Shame
EWF with The Emotions – Boogie Wonderland
Blondie – Heart Of Glass
Crown Heights Affair – You Gave Me Love
Hot Chocolate – You Sexy Thing
Candi Staton – Young Hearts Run Free
Heatwave – The Groove Line
The Bee Gees – You Should Be Dancing
The Jacksons – Shake Your Body Down To The Ground
I’d have Boogie Nights for Heat Wave. Otherwise it’s a banger!
No Sylvester? That’s mighty unreal.
Also, do we consider I Feel Love
to be disco, or merely – and still – ‘the sound of the future’?
It’s all in the hi-hats, though Sylvester is top Disco.
Inspired by @pencilsqueezer above, I thought I’d have a try at a list of late Romantic/early 20th century pieces. Not easy – lots to leave out – including the entire 2nd Viennese School repertoire (which arguably falls outside of the brief stated in the OP).
It’s ended up a bit symphony-heavy, but never mind.
In no particular order:
Sibelius – Symphony no. 6
Brahms – Violin Concerto
Mahler – Symphony no. 4
R. Strauss – Four Last Songs
Bruckner – Symphony no. 9
Ravel – Gaspard de la Nuit
Nielsen – Symphony no. 5
Elgar – Variations on a theme (“Enigma”)
Dvořák – Symphony no. 8
Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
Huzzah! Good to see Neilsen makes the cut.
But of course!
Jazz: An Introduction
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Dave Brubeck – Time Out
Ben Webster & Oscar Peterson – Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson
John Coltrane – Blue Train
Dexter Gordon – Ballads
Charlie Parker – Charlie Parker With Strings
Wes Montgomery – Willow Weep For Me
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Moanin’
Bill Evans Trio – Sunday At The Village Vanguard
Stan Getz – Blue Velvet: Stan Getz And Strings
Smoooth!
Hi @baskerville-Old-Face. I know little of jazz, but are these, as @tiggerlion states, generally nice quiet dinner party jazz? Because that’s the kind I like 🙂
Whilst he replies, broadly yes. The sort of stuff that gave jazz a good name, ahead the stuff that didn’t.
But with enough tension and release to maintain interest.
In the main, yes you can have dinner listening to this (or a single malt!). But it’s the further exploration that will reward. I stuck to what I regard as an obvious starter for ten, but there are so many other albums I could have picked, such as Charles Mingus ‘Ah Um’, the brilliant recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, Horace Silver’s ‘Song For My Father’, or any of the early Blue Note recordings of Grant Green, Herbie Hancock, or Lou Donaldson. Then there’s Ella Fitzgerald’s recordings of the great American songbooks, Duke Ellington’s Suites and the superb Capitol recordings of Frank Sinatra. The more you look, the more you find! One modern band I really like is the Swedish jazz outfit the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (or e.s.t.). Well worth a listen!
Thanks for the considered reply/replies. I have the Frank and Ella stuff: one couldn’t wander too far from the tune back then if a singer was involved.
I shall delve into your top 10.
Only on the Afterword could a band who ceased operating almost two decades ago be described as modern…
Snarky Puppy. They’re good too!
@mc-escher
Also try:
The Train & The River by the Jimmy Giuffre 3 featuring Jim Hall (actually, the best album ever made).
Blues for Night People by Charlie Byrd.
Wot no Monk?
Prog Rock: An Introduction
Various – Nice Enough To Eat (Island Sampler)
Genesis – Foxtrot
Yes – The Yes Album
ELP – Tarkus
Wishbone Ash – Argus
Jethro Tull – Aqualung
The Moody Blues – In Search Of The Lost Chord
Pink Floyd – Meddle
Focus – Moving Waves
Camel – Moonmadness
I bow to no one in my love of “Aqualung” but I would have had “Thick as brick” as a prog choice.
Perhaps a bit full-on as an introduction to the uninitiated?
That would be Passion Play. I mean, Aqualung is brilliant and qualifies as prog so why not, though TAAB is close to being a perfect prog album.
Fair comment.
Whereas at the opposite end of the scale..
The ne plus ultra of prog
Van der Graaf : A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
Gentle Giant : The Advent of Panurge
PFM : l’Isola di Niente
Egg : Seven is a Jolly Good Time
Steve Hackett : Ace of Wands
King Crimson : Lizard
Gryphon : Second Spasm
Caravan : l’Auberge du Sanglier / A-Hunting we Shall Go / Backwards etc
Pekka Pohjola : Mathematical Air Display
Genesis : Twilight Alehouse
The “ne plus ultra of prog”? I think I might take issue with a few titles here…
…but my supper’s ready (arf arf!)
Advent of Panurge? Seven is a jolly good time? Anything by Gryphon??
On second glance: this is not ne plus ultra of prog – this is a playlist called “Chesh’s Prog Faves”!
Well come on, give me counterproposals! That’s what I am digging for. Tell me what I’m missing, cause I’ll probably love it.
That said, I do tend to think of ‘Plague’ as the ne plus ultra, with ‘Panurge’ not far behind.
Haven’t forgotten – just haven’t had the headspace.
I agree with …Lighthousekeepers.
I’m tempted to add Pioneers over c, either studio (H to He) or live (Vital). Studio version feels like the pioneers have lost their matter and gone incorporeal, like ghosts. Live version feels like the pioneers have accumulated mass and turned into dangerous monsters. Both versions are weirder than a weird thing.
I’ll keep thinking about the others…
Ok then. I’ve kept away from the “folky” end of prog (Gryphon, pastoral Genesis), as I don’t think it’s extreme enough to be described as ne plus ultra. You went for tracks rather than albums – so I’ve done the same.
King Crimson – Red
Van der Graaf Generator – it’s got to be …lighthouse keepers, really
Gentle Giant – either the live Excerpts from Octopus or Proclamation
Rush – 2112 ((thanks, Freddy)
Yes – Gates of Delirium
Jethro Tull – A Passion Play
Peter Hammill – A Louse is not a Home or Gog/Magog
Henry Cow – Living in the Heart of the Beast (or anything, really)
Gnidrolog – Snails
Blood Incantation – The Stargate
I need a lie down now…
(PS: party time for @Tiggerlion?)
Hmmm.
2112?
Too rocky?
Canterbury Sound/Neo-Canterbury – again, my list was huge and I’ve left out many favourites…
Hatfield and The North – The Rotters’ Club
National Health – first album
Soft Machine – Two
Caravan – For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night
Camel – Mirage
Big Hogg – Pageant of Beasts
Robert Wyatt – Rock Bottom
Antique-Seeking Nuns – Double Egg
Matching Mole – first album
Slapp Happy/Henry Cow – Desperate Straights
Thumbs up from me, especially the choice of Soft Machine album. Can’t have too much Robert Wyatt!
Huzzah!
Hooray for Matching Mole! “O Caroline” is a gem
Good call. I also like the band If, rock with a hint of jazz (and vice versa).
I like If as well: but I don’t think they belong in a Canterbury list. I’d either put them in Munster’s progressive British jazz list, or in your own prog rock list.
Shirley “Snow Goose”?
Nah. Mirage is a better intro, superb songs and playing.
Snow Goose gets all the attention, Mirage is wildly underrated.
Also (and I’m not sure that I can articulate why), I think of Snow Goose as a prog album, soup to nuts. Mirage feels more related to the Canterbury scene.
21st Century Americana
Okay, it’s a genre I’ve just made up, but in such a broad church here’s a taster of the recent stuff.
Calexico – The Theead That Keeps Us
Ryan Adams – Cold Roses
The Felice Brothers – From Dreams to Dust
Margo Cilker – Pohorylle
Son Volt – American Central Dust
Mount Moriah – Mount Moriah
Jason Isbell – Southeastern
James McMurtry – The Horses and the Hounds
Kathleen Edwards – Asking for Flowers
Avett Brothers – Closer Than Together
I’m happy that someone else likes Central American Dust.
I’m happy that Margo Cilker is on the list
Love Calexico, particularly their music with another favourite Iron & Wine. Mention should also be made of Hiss Golden Messenger, Cowboy Junkies and John Hiatt.
Hard Bop without Miles
John Coltrane – Blue Train
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Moanin’
Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus
Lee Morgan – The Sidewinder
Clifford Brown & Max Roach
Hank Mobley – Soul Sation
Horace Silver – Song For My Father
Jackie McLean – New Soil
Freddie Hubbard – Breaking Point
Cannonball Adderley – Something Else 😉
Oh, very nice…
Wot no Monk?
Monk is in a category of his own
Tone poems.
Bax – Tintagel.
Sibelius – Finlandia.
Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel orchestration).
R. Strauss – Don Juan.
Rachmaninoff – Isle of the Dead.
Smetana – Die Moldau.
Dukas – The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Scriabin – Poème de L’extase.
Debussy – La Mer.
Respighi – Pines of Rome.
This could easily have grown to be a lot more than ten but rules are rules.
Gosh! I didn’t realise I was such a fan of tone poems. Love all of those.
Truly superb! In fact, these would be an excellent way into “classical music” for anyone who needs it.
90s Hip-Hop
Nas – Illmatic
Wu Tang Clan – 36 Chambers
Outkast – Aquemini
Souls of Mischief – 93 til Infinity
A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory
Mos Def – Black on Both Sides
The Roots – Things Fall Apart
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing
Mobb Deep – The Infamous
Dr Dre – 2001
No Biggie, 2Pac or Jay-Z.
I like your discipline, though I draw the line at DJ Shadow. Great album but not hip hop. Leaves room for Missy Elliott’s Supa Dupa Fly.
It’s a weird one; it’s technically a Hip Hop album, made by a Hip Hop artist, but it doesn’t have/never had a Hip Hop audience. Probably belongs on whatever list Massive Attack end up on.
For fear of setting off QI klaxons – Trip Hop?
Trip Hop
Massive Attack – Blue Lines
Tricky – Maxinquaye
Portishead – Dummy
Björk – Homogenic
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing
David Holmes – Let’s Get Killed
Mono – Formica Blues
Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain
Lana Del Ray – Born To Die
FKA Twigs – LP1
Maxinquaye
Dummy
Blue Lines
Mezzanine
Smokers Delight
Headz
Endtroducing
Music Has The Right To Children
Flexistentialism
Cold Krush Kuts
But I’ve got several of those and I didn’t even realise they were Trip Hop!
I agree it’s Trip Hop. Genres are dissatisfactory in that they include a mix of styles and records that don’t exactly fit but if they are to go somewhere they go where they must. There was a late 90s thing of these kind of records that are dance music/hip hop influenced but are quite nice to listen to. Sound and texture is important and some retro elements, proper singing, instrumental sections. It got to be a pleasant background, popular for dinner parties, tormented lyrics aside. Moby’s Play comes into the picture. Pretty sounds, cool vibes. We felt we were hip without anyone getting too challenged or disturbed.
Endtroducing is surely a prog album? That’s my hot take anyway. It has all the hallmarks of prog and is truly progressive (or rather, was.) DJ Shadow is a proper composer who works in a field where he can hide. But it’s prog. It’s practically Tarkus.
When I first saw this comment I did what I always do when someone utters the “P” word – I put my fingers in my ears and shouted “Nanananana” until I felt better.
But the more I’ve thought about it..
Endtroducing, in my brain, is sort of on its own, but if I think of Shadow as a prog artist using new tech the surprising drift in style of the albums and EPs he made in the naughties makes a lot of sense.
His lil bro’ RJD2 too..
It does sort of help make sense of his stuff… Endtroducing is just a fantastic listen with lots of linked tracks and themes. The work of a very studious composer at the least. I really love his stuff.
Love you for including 93 Til Infinity, The Infamous and Things Fall Apart. All classics.
If I was trying to represent the 90s I’d probably go as follows:
Illmatic – Nas
36 Chambers – Wu Tang
Liquid Swords – GZA
Low End Theory – Tribe (although you could pick 2 or 3 others as well)
Ready To Die – Biggie
Aquemini – Outkast
Soundbombing Volume II – Various
Funcrusher Plus – Company Flow
It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot – DMX
Scouts Honor By Way Of Blood – Rampage
You could swap the last one for any of Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, Uptown Saturday Night, Illadelph Halflife, or Fan-Tas-Tic Vol 1.
The reality is that you could easily make this list using only albums made by Nas, Outkast, Tribe Called Quest and the Wu.
No Fear Of A Black Planet? *sulky face*
I know I must accept it, but I have the same problem with a 90s hip hop list as I have when they do a review of football using a calendar year. I feel like it’s more natural to go 86ish to 95ish, just like we judge football from August to May..
Not really a fan, and feel like it’s spiritually an 80s record.
I had to look it up to check it wasn’t released in the 80s.
@Sewer-Robot‘s dating definitely feels more aligned with what was going on in hip hop
I feel like you can probably make an argument that Hip Hop’s 90s started in January 1989 when NWA released Straight Outta Compton.
In that case Public Enemy are a shoe-in.
😀
Haha – still a no from me.
Starter for two … the only two albums released by any of the Romo bands
Passive Soul – Orlando (surprisingly good actually)
Open Wide – Minty
What a wonderfully enjoyable thread. I love the way that contributors are creating genres that we didn’t even realise existed.
I’m calling this list POETS’ CORNER.
It contains songs and poems by people who are known primarily as wordsmiths
Benjamin Britten’s settings of English poems – SERENADE FOR TENOR, HORN AND STRINGS
Anthony Joseph – THE RICH ARE ONLY DEFEATED WHEN RUNNNG FOR THEIR LIVES
Marianne Faithful and Warren Ellis – SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY
Gil Scott Heron – PIECES OF A MAN
Roger Robinson -DOG HEART CITY
John Cooper Clarke – SNAP CRACKLE AND BOP
Simon Armitage – THE SCAREMONGERS – BORN IN A BARN
The Liverpool scene – compilation PUNK POETS, BEATNIKS AND COUNTER.CULTURE HEROES
The Waterboys – AN APOINTMENT WITH MR YEATS
John Betjeman – BANANA BLUSH
I was particularly chuffed to suddenly remember that Britten composition. I heard it at school at an age when Rory Gallagher, Soft Machine and Hendrix were what mattered to me. And it blew me away.
Great Thinking! But, you’ve forgotten Linton Kwesi Johnson!!!!
Does David Bowie Peter and the Wolf qualify as poetry?
Thanks Tigger.
SHAME on me for forgetting LKJ.
I saw him recently being interviewed here at Kulturhuset and he was superb.
Dapper? He was the best-dressed man in the room.
PETER AND THE WOLF definitely qualifies as poetry in my book.
This is a great idea…
BRAZILIAN HITMAKERS
This was a tough one. A real labour of love-
Céu – VAGA ROSA
Tulipa – EFEMERA
Adriana Calcanhotto -PUBLICO
Vinicius de Moraes – LA FUSA live in ARGENTINA
Gal Costa – BABY
Gilberto Gil – EXTRA
Caetano Veloso – UNS
Marisa Monte – MAIS
Elis Regina – ELIS AND TOM
Milton Nascimento – CLUB DE ESQUINA
Groovy!
Untie your laces its the all singing all dancing Shoegaze albums starter for 10
MBV – Loveless
Ride – Nowhere
Slowdive – Souvlaki
Lush – Gala
Chapterhouse – Whirlpool
Swervedriver – Raise
Pale Saints – the Comforts of Madness
Stereolab – Switched On (Vol 2) [I am 50/50 on including this but those eternal wigouts would involve a lot of staring at the shoes]
Spiritualised – Lazer Guided Melodies
Catherine Wheel – Ferment
I played Whirlpool fairly recently, when considering whether to buy the Chapterhouse CD box set. I didn’t like it much, and so didn’t bother.
I’d swap out Doppelganger by Curve, but it isn’t a great album, the second album Cuckoo is better, but the EP collection Pubic Fruit is much better.
Going Blank Again is a much better Ride album than Nowhere, but less shoegazey.
Yes I prefer GBA, it’s bigger, more varied, stronger ideas and beautiful production. But for for yer authentic ‘shoegaze’ I felt it had to be Nowhere!
Similarly, Just for a Day is more shoegaze than Souvlaki, but the early EPs were better yet.
Somewhat of a precursor to Shoegaze, I suggest a starter for 10 of late 80s/early 90s neo-psych/garage acts:
The Telescopes: Taste
Loop: Fade Out
Spacemen 3: Sound of Confusion
Thee Hypnotics: Live’r Than God!
Terminal Cheesecake: Angels in Pigtails
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Psychocandy
Dr. Phibes and the House of Wax Equations: Whirlpool
AR Kane: 69
Gallon Drunk: You, the Night … and the Music
The Moonflowers: Hash Smits
@salwarpe
That AR Kane album was talked about a lot back in the day but I’ve never got around to hearing it. What am I missing?
It’s supposed to have started the genre of ‘dream pop’. As it’s towards the end of the list above, it’s not exactly the dregs, but it wasn’t one of my favourite listens. Airy, jazzy with elements of dub, it could easily irritate with its lack of obvious rhythms, it could I suppose be tarred with the tag of prog. An acquired taste (I’m not really selling it, am I?), if you like the second This Mortal Coil album, it might be for you.
If you didn’t like Talk Talk, it probably won’t do anything for you.
@salwarpe
I do like Talk Talk but not especially the last two albums…
I know, shocking.
Latin Jazz
Fania all Stars – Live At The Cheetah Vol. 2
Tico All Stars – Descargas Live At The Village Gate
Cachao – Cuban Jam Sessions
Sabu – Jazz Espagnole
Jazz On The Latin Side Allstars – Vol. 1
Los Hombres Calientes – Los Hombres Caliente
Jerry Gonzalez – Rumba Para Monk
Charlie Palmieri – Giant Steps
The Alegre All Stars – Best Of
Tito Puente – Puente In Percussion
Party time!!!
Pub rock:
Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers/Bongos over Balham
Dr Feelgood/Down by the Jetty
Brinsley Schwartz/The New Favourites of Brinsley Schwarz
Eggs Over Easy/Good ‘n’ Cheap
Roogalator/Play It by Ear
Ducks Deluxe/Ducks Deluxe
Any Trouble/Wheels in Motion
The Blues Band/Official Bootleg
Juice on the Loose/Juice on the Loose
Balham Alligators/Balham Alligators
No room for Teenage Depression? Or the Bees Make Honey e.p.?
I never quite clocked Eddie & the Hot Rods as pub rock, even if that is where they indubitably began. I tried to limit to bands I actually saw in pubs, or were so indelibly ingrained in the movement that I wished I had. I’d expect the DAYWDHMs to be on early evening, at a late 70s Reading.
First album and Live at the Marquee e.p. are most definitely pub rock. By the time they were the DAYWDHMs, arguably you may have a point.
Balham Alligators … must investigate a whole in Pub Rock knowledge
Superb Cajun rock band, and a temporary home for the excellent Geraint Watkins, a legend of very many bands what play in pubs. Currently in Slim Chance and part of Reg Meuross’s Woodie Guthrie tribute.
Here’s more to explore
https://bridgehouse.bandcamp.com/album/live-a-week-at-the-bridge-e16
Don’t recall how I found this on vinyl but it’s a cracker. Think I bought it becasue I’d seen Salt at reading Festival – an early example of punk blues. Quite a few well known names appear elsewhere and two bangers from The Roll Ups, whose studio albums weren’t anything like as good. Next stop, The Hamsters …..
A set of 20th century British classical music: I’ve had to miss out many fine composers and take a view on the compositions listed – but I could certainly stand behind this list as a starter pack.
Elgar – Symphony no. 2
Bax – Symphony no. 2
Britten – Four Sea Interludes
Vaughan Williams – Sinfonia Antarctica
Delius – The Song of the High Hills
Walton – Symphony no. 1
Lloyd – Symphony no. 11
Alwyn – Fantasy-Waltzes for piano
Maconchy – String Quartets (yes, all of them)
MacMillan – Miserere
On reflection, bin the Maconchy quartets – don’t know what I was thinking there.
We’ll have Holst instead – Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda!
Top work that man. I thought of having a bash at the Brits but on reflection I guessed you would do so and I could get my lazy on.
Any supersubs in mind?
Could John Tavener’s The Protecting Veil come on as a supersub? I must admit to not knowing most of your list (my knowledge of classical is practically non-existent), but TPV has always struck me as a beautiful work.
A good choice – although I might have to expand the list to eleven!
How about some Finzi? His Clarinet or Violin Concerto perhaps? Rubbra’s string quartets?
You’ve got it covered though tbh.
If the above set are intended as an introduction, the next set along might include Finzi, Rubbra, Moeran, Venables, Arnold…and Maconchy!
Perhaps you should take a punt at a female composers list and put Maconchy’s string quartets at the top of that list.
British or international?
International.
*drums fingers*
Sorry Tiggs, haven’t forgotten – just haven’t had the headspace…
I hope this was worth the wait – 20th century female composers (if you don’t look too closely at the extremes). Mr P wanted international – but they seem to be mostly British – just worked out that way.
I’ve chosen the “horror themes” LP for Elizabeth Lutyens. She is, of course, a serious composer – but this music is both superb and representative of her approach.
Ethel Smyth – Serenade in D maj
Sally Beamish – Viola concerto no. 2 (The Seafarer)
Rebecca Clarke – Viola Sonata (1919)
Eliz. Lutyens – Golden Age of Horror Vol. 1 (original motion picture themes)
Ruth Gipps – Coronation Procession
Roxanna Panufnik – Westminster Mass
Dobrinka Tabakova – Concerto for cello and strings
Nancy Dalberg – String quartet no. 2
Eliz. Maconchy – String quartet no. 6
Amy Beach – Violin sonata op. 34
👏 There’s a few I haven’t heard…*kick starts Qobuz.
Niche interest alert!
Definitely worth the wait. 😉
Thanks @fitterstoke. This list really is the AW at its esoteric best. Reaching spots that other sites only dream of! I suspect there are not many of us who know the works of these composers. Thanks for opening our eyes to them!
It’s all good stuff – I don’t know why they aren’t better known!
If you like a bit of chamber cello, @pencilsqueezer, you might like a disc on Lyrita called British Cello Works. Smyth, Maconchy, Lutyens and Clarke – all cello and piano, Lionel Handy and Jennifer Hughes. Really very good indeed.
I am quite partial to a touch of cello as it happens. I’ll check that out. Diolch.
Noveltycrapcore
Shaddup You Face
Save Your Love
Captain Beaky
Star Trekkin’
There’s no one quite like Grandma
It’s ‘orrible being in love when you’re 8 and-a-half
The Birdie Song
Agadon’t
I’m too Sexy
Nelly the Elephant
Add in Love Will Keep Us Together and that’s my next episode of Charity Shop Classics.
I had never heard of that song before. But the title reminded me of one I very much have heard (of).
What?!? Love Will Keep us Together is a tremendous song!
Well, I like it (which doesn’t say much), but it is a charity shop classic, akin to a 1970s No Parlez.
In fact, the last time I went to town, I saw two copies of LWKUT in the three or four charity shops I looked in. One 7″ single, one LP, but both scratched to f***.
I would argue that I’m Too Sexy and Star Trekkin’ are too good to be in a list of Noveltycrapcore songs, and there’s no shortage of replacements…
I’m Too Sexy in particular doesn’t belong in that company. Too clever and self- consciously arch to be considered a mere crap novelty song.
Fair enough. I do sort of like it. Particularly “no way I’m disco dancing” as if that would be too much for everyone to take.
The Chicken Song – created on purpose to be both novelty and crap
It’s very funny, though. This makes it not crap.
I’ve heard Michael Fenton-Stevens who sang on it say in interview that the decision to take a percentage rather than a flat fee paid for his house.
Ballet scores.
Stravinsky – L’oiseau de Feu.
Tchaikovsky – Swan Lake.
Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé.
Poulenc – Les Biches.
Stravinsky – Le Sacre du Printemps.
Adam – Giselle.
Prokofiev – Romeo & Juliet.
Copland – Appalachian Spring.
Debussy – Jeux.
Adès – Dante. (a wild card entry).
Marvellous!
Stravinsky 1-0 Ravel
Prokofiev 2-1 Debussy……
I know, I’m shallow and uncultured.
…and wrong, perhaps…
Ok an African starter pack .Not a genre I know because there are many many genres in African music. But putting that aside here is a list for people interested in African music. Consideration was given to accessibility, recording quality and availability. My benchbark was “is it on Spotify” and it is remarkable how many benchmark classics of African music are not on Spotify. Even albums released internationally. So I have had to compromise and there are a couple of compilations.
In no particular order:
1 Sunny Ade Synchrosystem – preferably the Nigerian release – Nigerian JuJu
2. Fela Kuti – Black President . On Spotfiy it is a compilation not the original album Afrobeat
3. Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate – In The Heart Of The Mooon – Mali
4 Thomas Mapfumo – Mabasa – Zimbabwe
5 Oliver Mtukudzi -Shoko – Zimbabwe
6 Indestructible Beat of Soweto Volume 1 – Compilation South Africa
7. Franco and Rochereau – Lisanga Ya Banganga – Congolese Rumba
8. Youssou Ndour – Immigres – Senegalese Mbalax
9. Super Sweet Talks – The Lords Prayer – Ghana Highlife (Sweet Talks Hollywood Highlife Safari seemed to be noton Spotify
10. Kenya Dance Mania – compilation of Kenyan guitar band – Swahili Rumba
I’m sure it is a genre you know.
*doubletake*
Oh. Of course.
The impact of the comma , on display, right there.
I’ll certainly explore that list in some detail.
I’d love to see a well-informed list for just Afrobeat on its own
Most playlists I see include a lot of stuff I don’t regard as Afrobeat.
I can list
Fela, his 2 sons
Femi and Sean
Fela’s former drummer Tony Allen
Aussies Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
New York band – Antibalas
I would count Orlando Julius, Dele Sosimi, who was in Fela’s band, and Geraldo Pino.
Also Canada’s Soul Jazz Orchestra and Brazil’s Bixiga 70.
Thanks for those @Alias. Ousmane Kouyate has just got a record on Analog Africa that sounds like Malian Afrobeat
I saw the Ousmane Kouyate release, it’s ridiculously expensive for a 12″. Unless the 2 tracks are Fela length, I won’t be buying it.
I agree with your point about Music labelled Afrobeat not being Afrobeat. Anything funky or jazzy from Africa seems to count.
Was playing Indestructible beat of Soweto just last week. Joyous.
Blue-eyed Soul:
Male:
David Bowie – Young Americans
Boz Scaggs – Silk Degrees
Daryl Hall & John Oates – Private Eyes
The Doobie Brothers – Takin’ It To The Streets
Stevie Winwood – Arc Of A Diver
Robert Palmer – Sneakin’ Sally Down The Alley
Simply Red – A New Flame
Dexys Midnight Runners – Searching For The Young Rebels
Van Morrison – Moondance
Average White Band – AWB
Female:
Adele – 21
Shelby Lynne – I Am
Frazey Ford – Indian Ocean
Duffy – Rockferry
Alison Moyet – Hometime
Joss Stone – Soul Sessions
Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
Lisa Stansfield – Affection
Dusty Springfield – Dusty In Memphis
Nicole Atkins – Goodnight Rhonda Lee
White Boy Blues:
Jeff Beck – Truth
John Mayall – Beano album
Led Zeppelin 2
Fleetwood Mac – Pious Bird of Good Omen
Cream – Disraeli Gears
Rolling Sones – The Rolling Stones
The Yardbirds – Five Live Yardbirds
The Animals – The Animals
Ten Years After – Ssshh
Jethro Tull – This Was
White English boys it would seem.
Going across the Irish Sea
I’d add
Rory Gallagher – Irish Tour
Gary Moore – Still Got The Blues
And maybe Terry Reid’s “Seed of Memory” or “River” could sneak in there too?
Whereas Disraeli Gears is the better album, Fresh Cream would be a better blues intro album for my money, also I would have gone for Fleetwood Mac’s first. ..?
There are some great lists here. The spread of musical knowledge and appreciation in this group is impressive. Here’s my top ten secret passions:
Shostakovich – the two piano concertos
Ravel – piano concerto (played by Michelangeli)
Richard Strauss – Four Last Songs (the first recording by Solti, featuring Kiri Te Kanawa)
Family – Music in a Doll’s House
Queen – Queen (first album)
Bo Hansson – Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings
Miles Davis – Kind of Blue (an album of jazz perfection)
Stan Getz – What the World Needs Now (Bacharach & David songs)
The Nice – Autumn ‘67/Spring’68
Cream – Disraeli Gears
Oooh, but which Ravel Piano Concerto?
The one in G major.
That first movement alone is truly one of the most exciting, and joyous, few minutes you’ll ever spend in your life.
Why are they secret, @Baskerville-Old-Face?
I can’t tell you that, otherwise…
Better late than never:
Sweet Soul Music
The Delfonics – La La Means I Love You
Rose Royce – In Full Bloom
The Stylistics – Greatest Hits
The Chi-Lites – Hit Highlights From The Chi-Lites
Randy Crawford – Now We May Begin
Teddy Pendergrass – Duets – Love & Soul
Laura Nyro & LaBelle – Gonna Take A Miracle
Isaac Hayes – …To Be Continued
The Spinners – Spinners
Roberta Flack – Killing Me Softly
And here’s my playlist:
Nice
Very nice.
Very, very nice.
Ahem. Foul!
Sweet.
To be fair, it was over five years ago and I’ve had me dinner since then.
Off with the old eh Tig.
Oh @Twang, I’m so sorry. I usually copy Spotify Playlists I like so I can add to them in due course. Completely forgot where I got it from originally. A plagiarist on my house!
I’m flattered! Those are lovely songs. And as Tig says, it was years ago. I find playlists I forgot I made though that one I listen to often.
Very, very, very nice.
Dubstep:
Skream – Filth
Magnetic Man – I Need Air
Massive Attack – Paradise Circus (Zed Dred remix)
Benga And Coki – Night
Flying Lotus – Glendale Galleria
Sub Focus featuring Alpines – Tidal Wave
Skrillex – Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
Excision & Datsik – Swagga
Digital Mystiks – Antiwar Dub
Burial – Archangel
You cannot make this list without Midnight Request Line on it. Just unthinkable.
Dubstep is a bit like Punk, in that you probably need two separate lists for the distinctive British and US flavours – the former influenced the latter, but they’re really two different vibes entirely. Listen to Night and then Tidal Wave – there’s no way these are in the same genus.
Personally, I’d go with all the early British stuff that sounds like someone has set up a soundsystem in a haunted house.
My apologies. I think you are correct Dubstep should refer to late nineties to noughties UK acts. By the time the US caught on in the teenies, it was a different beast.
No need to apologise – I enjoyed the list.
UK Dubstep
Skream – Midnight Request Line
Pinch – Airlock
Digital Mystiks – Molten
Burial – Distal Lights
Shackleton – Hypno Angel
Cosmin TRG – Decisions
Distance – Delight
Benga And Coki – Night
2562 – Basin Dub
Boxcutter – Chiral
In celebration of President Macron’s state visit and the resurrection of La Entente Cordiale, here are ten fine French LPs…
French Pop
Les Negresses Vertes – Miah
Francoise Hardy – Tous les garcons et les filles
Charles Trenet – Disque D’Or
Air – Talkie Walkie
Daft Punk – Discovery
Nouvelle Vague – Version Francaise
France Gall – Ella, elle l’a
Serge Gainsboro – Histoire de Melanie Nelson
Grand Corps Malade – Midi 20
Justice – Cross
And while we are in Paris, let’ s celebrate these fine artists…
Rai and North African
Khaled – Khaled
Rachid Taha – Tekitoi
Faudel – Baida
Cheb Mali – Meli Meli
Souad Massi – Deb
Khaled, Rachid Taha, Faudel – 1,2,3, Soleils –
Orchestra National de Barbes – En concert
Lili Boniche – Anthologie
Sheikha Remitti – Le Etoile du Rai
Hindi Zara – Handmade
I am bound to express concern at the shortage of Breton artists there, KFD.
Completely agree with you, @thecheshirecat.
No question about it. Breton music needs a Ten of its own.
Here’s one I made earlier…..
Bretagne
Nolwenn Leroy – Bretonne
Alain Stivell- A l’Olimpia
Yann Tiersen – Le Phare
Sonerien Du – Puzzle
Bagad Kemper – Hep Diskrog
Strobinell – Breizh Hud
Tri Yann – Le decouverte ou l’ignorance
Les Souers Goudalec – Chanteuses du Centre- Bretagne
Kornog – Music from Brittany
Gwerz – Gwerz
For those who enjoy Breton harp music, I can recommend “Diriaou”, a newly released live album from 1998 by the Breton harpist Kristen Nogues and the Devonian reedman John Surman. Lovely stuff!
https://soufflecontinurecords.bandcamp.com/album/diriaou
I am not sure a true Breton considers themselves French. (See also Cornwall/English etc etc.)
thanks for a great tip @duco01.
Superb.
Interesting to read a little about Kristen @duco01.
Sadly she died in 2007.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristen_Nogu%C3%A8s
Here she is in her younger days.
this was rather lovely too
OMG, you’ve got a Sonerien Du that I don’t even know! Many decades ago, they brought out Gwerz Penmarc’h, which remains one of my top ten albums of all time. Can’t fault you in your choice of Stivell and Tri Yann.
Very pleased you approved of my suggestions @thecheshirecat. Compiling that list led me down a glorious Breton rabbit hole. I was listening to favourites old and new all morning and the spotify AI DJ did rather a decent job
Skolvan Tears… (L’appel)
Bagad Kemper & Red Cardell – Désert et désir
Wot, no Mano Negra?
Celebrating Britishness before Britoop
John Martyn – Solid Air
Richard and Linda Thompson – I want to see the bright lights
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells
Kinks -Village Green preservation society
Beatles – Rubber Soul
Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
Ian Dury – New boots and panties
Elvis Costello – Get Happy
David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
Peter Gabriel – So
I think Hunky Dory rather than Ziggy and Melt rather than So but, otherwise, what a great idea!
I like that list – but (🙂) I’d have Let it Bleed rather than Sticky Fingers and, like Tiggs, Melt rather than So.
I might have Inside Out rather than Solid Air – but that’s edging into personal favourites and SA is probably the better “introduction”, according to the OP.
(PS: I’d drop Bowie and add something by Roy Harper!)
Harper instead of Elvis. The problem with The Stones is that they were always heavily influenced by American music. How about Between The Buttons or Aftermath? UK versions, of course.
Yep – on reflection, I could agree with both.
…but which Roy Harper? Stormcock would be the standard choice – but if we’re celebrating Britishness, perhaps Bullinamingvase?
I might have Hergest Ridge instead of Tubular Bells, and I might try to squeeze in Virginia Astley’s “From Gardens Where We Feel Secure” or Vashti Bunyan’s “Just Another Diamond Day” somewhere in the list.
But yeah, nice concept!
What a fine arbiter you are, on all three counts.
Ooh, nice!
I was actually thinking about the Virginia Astley – yes it is quintessentially English – probably needed a top 20 rather than top 10.
Kinks – Village Green. Hmmm … marvellous. Pop music isn’t it … young boys with guitars … “can we release a celebration of Britain past on the same day as the White Album?” … yes you can Ray, just don’t expect it to sell anything for 40 years … hmmm … marvellous
Much as I love IWTSTBLT I’d suggest Henry the Human Fly as a celebration of Britishness and its oddities.
A splendid list. I’d happily sacrifice Tubular Balls for Nick Drake’s ‘Five Leaves Left’.
U.S. box office hit movie soundtracks from the 1960’s with no repeating of composers and not including musicals/ pop star related films
Bullitt – Lalo Schifrin
Midnight Cowboy – John Barry (Or ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’)
In The Heat Of The Night – Quincy Jones
Barbarella – Bob Crewe
Planet Of The Apes – Jerry Goldsmith
The Pink Panther – Henry Mancini
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid – Burt Bacharach
The Odd Couple – Neal Hefti
The Carpetbaggers – Elmer Bernstein
Psycho – Bernard Herrmann
String Quartets.
Schubert – String Quartet No.14 in D minor “Death and the Maiden”.
Mozart – String Quartets No.14 to No.19 “The Haydn Quartets”.
Dvořák – String Quartet No. 12, Op.96 “The American Quartet”.
Beethoven – String Quartets No. 7 to No.9, Op.59 “The Razumovsky Quartets”.
Debussy – String Quartet in G minor, Op.10.
Haydn – String Quartet in C major, Op.76. No.3 “The Emperor”.
Bartok – All six of them.
Ravel – String Quartet in F major.
Shostakovich – String Quartet No.8 in C minor, Op.110.
Britten – String Quartet No.2 in C major, Op.36.
I love string quartets and I listen to copious quantities of them. I could have added considerably more but ten it is. The information given should be enough to locate the quartets if hearing them is desirable.
Tasty. Very tasty.
The only change I might consider is to substitute the late quartets for the Rasumovsky set. Otherwise impeccable – nice to see the Ravel and the Debussy.
Yep. I pondered sticking the late quartets in but it’s nice to have the truly great stuff to look forward too.
I assume the second list would also include Nancy Dalberg and Elizabeth Maconchy? 😀
Funnily enough I was just getting come hither looks from my complete Maconchy string quartets box from across my decidedly uncrowded room.
Funk
James Brown – In The Jungle Groove
The J.B.’s – Food For Thought
Maceo and All The Kings Men – Doing Their Own Thing
Parliament – Mothership Connection
Trouble Funk – Drop the Bomb
Wild Tchoupitoulas – S/T
Wild Magnolias – S/T
Herbie Hancock – Headhunters
B.T. Express – Do It Til You’re Satisfied
Sly & The Family Stone – Stand
Very good. Alternatively:
The Meters – Rejuvenation
The Bar-Kays – Gotta Groove
Funkadelic – One Nation Under A Groove
War – Galaxy
Prince – Lovesexy
Earth, Wind & Fire – Gratitude
The Gap Band III
Cyamande
Donald Byrd – Blackbyrd
Isley Brothers – 3+3
This remarkable thread is just going from strength to strength. Long may it run. Congratulations Tigger on inspiring us all to talk about music that we love
Our visit to Brittany this morning inspired me to come up with a new Titanic Ten.
It all started with NOLWENN LEROY who sings in Breton. on her album BRETONNE.
Now it’s time for…
VOICES FROM THE BORDERLINES – ARTISTS WHO SING IN NON-MAINSTREAM LANGUAGES
That sounds rather dry, dúll and dusty but the music is anything but.
MARI BOINE – Same. LEAHKASTEN – UNFOLDING.
A FILETTA – Corsican. AB ETERNU POLYPHONIES CORSES
JULIE FOWLIS – Scottish Gaelic. CUILIDH.
MARIA DEL MAR BONET – Catalan. ALENAR
MOUSSU T E LES JOVENTS .Occitan. HOME SWEET HOME
ELISAPIE. Inuktitut- INUKITITUT. A rather different covers album from a very charismatic Canadian Inuit singer
THE GLOAMING -Irish Gaelic. 2
9BACH . Welsh. TINCIAN
GURRUMUL. Galpu, Gumatj or Djambarrpuyngulanguages of the Yolngu people of northeastern (northern territory) Arnhem Land. GURRUMUL.
ANTONIA FONT. Not a lass but an idiosyncratic band of beardy weirdies from Mallorca that sing in Catalan about spacemen. ALEGRIA.
Gwenno’s last album, Tresor, would kill 2 birds in one, being all in either Welsh or Cornish. Sadly, Utopia, out tomorrow, stoops to English, suffering a little by result.
Gwenno sounds like my kind of girl, @retropath. Thanks for reminding me about her.
Some European singers can also change effortlessly from one language to another during a set.
Not to mention Africans. Sailif Keita sings in several different African languages plus French during a gig.
On now to Portugal and the rather monolingual world of fado, a genre I really enjoy.
Here are 10 gems.
MARIZA – FADO EM MIM
‘
AMALIA RODRIGUES – HITS
CHRISTINA BRANCO – ULISSES
MADREDEUS – O ESPIRITU DO PAZ
MAFALDA ARNAUTH – ESTA VOZ QUE ME ATRAVESSA
CAMANE – SEMPRE DE MIM
DULCE PONTES – FOCUS WITH ENNIO MORRICONE
ANA MOURA – ACONTECEU
MARTA PEREIRA DA COSTA – SEM PALAVRAS
DEOLINDA – CANCAO AO LADO
Some of these artists have in fact rocked the fado boat. For example, Madredeus and Deolinda, in very different ways used fado as a starting point for their own music.
This evening, while preparing to cook supper, I stumbled across this superb NEW FADO playlist full of favourites old and new.
Enjoy,
Thanks – I shall!
A-ha. Just posted on the Takeover that I enjoyed the full Fado restaurant experience just a couple of weeks ago in Lisbon. The singers were so close to me that they could have nicked some of my clams, though they’d have been foolish to try.
I can’t believe we’ve come this far, namely 402 comments, without mentioning..
CONTEMPORARY BRITISH JAZZ
Thanks to the Fasching Jazzclub, the Stockholm Jazz Festival and the Roskilde Festival, many of these fine artists have played up here in the Frozen North.
And thanks too to Spånga’s King of Kool who has his finger firmly on the Stockholm jazz pulse.
MATTHEW HALSALL – AN EVER-CHANGING VIEW
JASMINE MYRA – HORIZONS
EMMA-JEAN THACKRAY – YELLOW
GREG FOAT – THE GLASS FROG
NALA SINEPHRO – ENDLESSNESS
FERGUS MCGREADIE – FOREST FLOOR
YAZZ AHMED – POLYHYMNIA
GOGO PENGUIN – MAN MADE OBJECT
ANDY SHEPPARD – AS GOOD AS IT GETS . WITH ESPEN ERIKSEN TRIO
THE COMET IS COMING – CHANNEL THE SPIRITS
Wot? No Nat Birchall!
😀
Nat’s name rings feint bells but for some reason he’s not yet on my radar.¨He’s been on Gondwana so i should know more about him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Birchall
Bandcamp is your friend.
The dub album African Shores with Vin Gordon and Al Breadwinner is in my top ten of the century.
The Storyteller – A Musical Tribute to Yusef Lateef I consider to be his best Jazz album
Thanks for those excellent tips, Tigger. High praise indeed.
I believe DuCool is also a fan. Nat can’t ever have played Stockholm otherwise I’m sure we’d have gone.
I’ve never used Bandcamp before. Time to take the plunge!
This Ten was very satisfying to do. Jazz is alive and very well in the Uk. Lots of young women making waves too.
African Shores. Seconded.
Shoot me down in flames; I know this isn’t a genre. But there is so much music to my taste which, when I sit back, I can only categorise in one way. So, I propose….
Bonkers
The Cardiacs : Fiery Gun Hand
King Crimson : Indiscipline
Lau : Save the Bees
Bjork : Ancestors
Kate Bush : Leave it Open
Messiaen : Turangalila Symphony
Julian Cope : Reynard the Fox
Rheingans Sisters : Urjen
PJ Harvey & John Parrish : A Woman a Man Walked by
Talking Heads : The Great Curve
So, what holds together ‘Bonkers’? So much of what I love about these pieces are the tangents followed, the sudden vocal and instrumental explosions, unconventional, unfathomable or possibly non-existent time signatures. Of course, Plague of Lighthouse Keepers belongs here too, but I’ve already used that for another genre. The cover of the K-Tel album will have Julian Cope under his shell.
Excellent!
Wonderful stuff, @thecheshirecat.
I look forward to listening to those tracks together and contemplating the connections.
KING TIGGER really has created an inspiring environment in which our imaginations can fly free.
Next up is a TEN inspired by the centenary of the birth of Zydeco squeezebox maestro, Clifton Chenier. Ten accordion players from around the world.
I do love the very versatile sound of the accordion but it shocked me how few of the musicians I could actually name. But looking at John Kirkpatrick’s website i was amazed about how many artists he’d worked with.
Instead of an album, I’ve chosen a tune that you may know,
CLIFTON CHENIER, LOUISIANA. BON TON ROULER.
MARIA KALANIEMI, FINLAND. VASKILINTU
JOHN KIRKPATRICK, ENGLAND. BITTER WAS THE NIGHT
ASTOR PIAZOLLA, ARGENTINA. LIBERTANGO.
FLACO JIMENEZ, TEX MEX. LA PALOMA
LUIZ GONZAGO, PERNAMBUCO, BRAZIL. ASA BRANCA
BENNY ANDERSSON, SWEDEN.DU ÄR MIN MAN.
JO EL SONNIER, LOUISIANA . TEAR-STAINED LETTER
YANN TIERSEN, FRANCE. LA VALSE D’AMELIE
MARTYN JACQUES, UK, TIGER LILIES. BULLY BOYS
This evening I’ve learnt that it was Belton Richard who played the squeezebox on Johnnie Allen’s magnificent Chuck Berry cover Promised Land.
And that it was Jo El Sonnier who played on Richard Thompson’s Tear Stained Letter.
I’m told that Swedish squeezebox maestro Benny had another slightly more glamorous gig before he joined BAO. I can’t believe it was as much fun as he is having now.
The Who had a song about Squeezebox but the accordionist was conspicuous by his absence,
Sheryl got it right..
I have a feeling that if The Who’s ‘squeezebox’ had been on display on stage, arrests could have been made.
Jo El Sonnier recorded Tear Stained Letter, but it was J Kirkpatrick who played on RT’s 1983 recording.
I hang my head in shame for getting that wrong. Thanks for correcting me Hubert.
The song has such a sassy, Cajun feel
to it that I presumed it must have been someone from Louisiana.
This clip may have contributed to my confusion. . https://youtu.be/-wKZu8o0s9g?si=DRCVxeZpskNgC6aE
Well! I must say, I enjoyed Sheryl Crow’s version of Squeezebox better than The ‘Orrible ‘Oo…
Here’s a mini-playlist so that we can all easily explore the BONKERS world of the @thecheshirecat. it’s going to be enjoyable.
It’s the naughty corner for me this morning. If there’s one thing that one should never do on the AW, it’s getting one’s facts wrong about Dick T.
“Tear-Stained Letter” is the opening track from Richard Thompson’s 1983 album Hand of Kindness. The song has been recorded by others, including a notable hit version by Jo-El Sonnier in 1988.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear-Stained_Letter
That led me this wonderful OGWT clip that features John Kirkpatrick.
This band are on fire. RT toured with them to promote Hand of Kindness.
Tear-stained letter was released as a single. It really ought to have been a big hit. Once Jo El got hold of it, it was.
We’ve done Fado. Now it’s time for Forro…
As I’m sure you know, that’s the toe-tapping, high energy, accordion-driven dance music from the north east of Brazil. None of the sophisticated, languid, bourgeois melancholy of Rio’s Bossa Nova here. This is “music for maids and taxi-drivers”. Grab your partner and get out on the dance floor.
The grand of man of forro was the late, great Luiz Gonzago.
He was always togged up magnificently his concerts.
Here are 10 -4-TIGS.
GAL COSTA – FESTO DO INTERIOR
GILBERTO GIL – ASA BRANCA
LUIZ GONZAGA – PAGODE RUSSO
ALCEU VALENCA – ANUNCIACAO
ELBA RAMALHO – AI QUE SAUDADE D’OCE
CLARA NUNES -FEIRA DE MANGAO
DOMINGUINHOS – ISSO AQUI TA BOM DEMAIS
RASTAPE – BEIJA-FLOR
ALCIONE – FORRO DO XENHENHEM
BICHO DO PE – NOSSO XOTE
Much earlier in this thread, I listed ten of my favourite pieces of Renaissance music.
Now I think it’s time to more forward chronologically and look at the seventeenth century. This is the period before the great, big-name composers of the late Baroque take the stage (e.g. Vivaldi, Albinoni, Telemann, Handel, and, of course, J.S. Bach).
So I’m calling this “Starter for Ten” list…
Music of the Early and Mid Baroque (1600 to circa 1700)
John Dowland – Second Book of Songs (1600)
Claudio Monteverdi – Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)
Heinrich Schütz – Musikalische Exequien (1636)
Johannes Hieronymous Kapsberger – Libro Quatro D’Intavolatura di Chitarone (1640)
Dieterich Buxtehude – Membra Jesu nostri (1680)
Charles Mouton – Pièces de luth sur différents modes (1680)
Heinrich I.F. Biber – Sonatae violino solo (1681)
Antonio Veracini – Sonatas for solo violin (1694)
Henry Purcell – Funeral Sentences (1695)
Marin Marais – Pieces de Viole Seconde Livre (1701)
I, for one, am looking forward to your picks from the 21st Century.
Ten party bangers of the 21st century that sound as though they were made in the early eighties.
Pharrell Williams – Happy
Daft Punk – Get Lucky
Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk
Chaka Khan – Like Sugar
Janelle Monae – Make Me Feel
Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
Goldfrapp – Ooh La La
Spiller – Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)
Beyoncé – Crazy In Love
Grimes – Oblivion
Solid gold floorfillers.
The STARTER FOR TEN PROJECT is opening all manner of interesting doors.
@Munster certainly gave us an exciting glimpse into the world of Progressive British Jazz IN THE 1960s.
Many familiar names there that would crop up in the Melody Maker or on late night jazz shows on the Beeb.
John McLaughlin, Mike Gibbs, Henry Lowther, Kenny Wheeler, Keith Tippett, Amancio D’Silva, Graham Collier, Neil Ardley and Mike Westbrook.
Rather lean pickings on Spotify for all these prodigious talents. Those Swedes need to pull their socks up.
Trying to remember the name of the late night azz radio programme i used to listen to, led me to this BBC timeline.
https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/radio-reinvented/timelines/radio-3
This quote amused me…
Progressive rock had more in common with classical music than it did with the pop, or so the thinking at Radio 3 went in the 1970s.
This was an attitude held firmly by producer George MacBeth who was convinced it was the key to getting an ‘intelligent hard core of new young listeners’ to tune in to Radio 3. Not everyone was convinced including Radio 3 Controller Roger Ponsonby. He felt ‘prog rock’ on Radio 3 pushed the station to its limits – many agreed.
On to a TIGGER TEN , full of nothing bur new names for me, @Fitterstoke‘s 20th CENTURY FEMALE COMPOSERS
Lots of roads less taken to explore here,
I am fascinated by Elizabeth Lutyens who moonlighted doing soundtracks for HAMMER films. That must have helped pay the bills.
Lutyens had a fascinating life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Lutyens
She was the first female composer in the UK to write a film score.
Her wiki page is worth a read, A few quotes…
Lutyens did not regard her film scores as highly as her concert works, but she still relished being referred to as the “Horror Queen”, which went well with the green nail polish she habitually wore.[12] She also wrote music for many documentary films and for BBC radio and TV programmes, as well as incidental music for the stage.[1]
Lutyens is remembered for her intolerance of her better-known contemporaries among English composers including Vaughan Williams, Holst, Ireland and Bax.[10] She dismissed them as “the cowpat school” in a lecture she gave at the Dartington International Summer School in the 1950s, disparaging their “folky‐wolky melodies on the cor anglais”.[10]
This may interest you, @fitterstoke.
I
I enjoyed the YT notes by Kenneth Meyer….
Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-1983) was a British composer whose life story reads like a who’s who of early 20th century music. She composed commercial music for horror films, had a long association with the BBC as a documentary film composer, and was influential in the early movements of serialism in England. This piece was commissioned by and written for David Starobin, who performed it quite a few times over the years. She has quite a few pieces that feature guitar and I look forward to performing and writing about them in the future.
Whereas all I’m bothered about is that she was the daughter of Edwin Lutyens, one of our finest architects, designer of memorials with gravity and English country houses.
The idea of a gravity-free memorial bothers me somewhat…
Shame on me for not reacting more strongly @fitterstoke to that fact Elizabeth was Lutyens’ daughter.
I now realise what a gigantic figure he was in British architecture.
And what an enormous family he belonged to- the 10th of 13 children.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Lutyens
Talk about being born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
I read on her wiki that Elizabeth and her mother travelled to India in the 1920s. Now I understand why. Her dad designed several buildings in New Delhi.
A gigantic figure in his time.
@Kaisfatdad
I think your comment would be better directed to @thecheshirecat – I’m embarrassed to admit that I had no idea about her father!
You are far too modest @fitterstoke! I had you down as an expert on 20th century composers, Edwardian architects and vintage British horror movies.
From the Cenotaph to Witchfinder General, All the facts were at your fingertips.
i am also very impressed by that feline polymath @thecheshirecat.
No need to spoil my illusions.
Chamber folk
I don’t think this is recognised as a genre, but I really do think that it exists. What’s more, it totally floats my boat. Duos, trios, quartets; mainly but not exclusively instrumental; understated, not shouting out to the dancefloor; giving space to the instruments less travelled – cello, harpsichord, gurdy of course, but then some; nyckelharpa, psaltery, hammered dulcimer. Sometimes invoking the baroque, at other times Steve Reich.
Leveret – Bagpipers
Three Cane Whale – Cassiopeia
Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas – Moccasin Walk/Ackley Lake
Purcell’s Polyphonic Party – Upon a Summer’s Day
Olov Johansson & Catriona McKay – First Class to Glasgow
Eelgrinders – The Voyage
Rheingans Sisters – Ostbjorka
The Wendigo – Frenetique
Patterson Dipper – Mathilda’s/The Lads in their Hundreds
Askew Sisters – I Wandered by the Brookside
@kaisfatdad please do the honours; the more I consider this, the finer a collection it becomes.
It is indeed a very fine collection @thecheshirecat and turning it into a playlist was my pleasure.
The only problem was that only six of the tracks were on Spotify.
To begin with I couldn’t find that Rheingans track anywhere which baffled me. And then I realised it was a Swedish tune and changed the spelling to Östbjörka which instantly gave a result-
For those of you who are interested, here’s some info on the artists I couldn’t find.
Purcell’s Polyphonic Party
http://www.purcelltrio.co.uk/invitationtodance/
AKA PURCELL TRIO
John Dipper • viola d’amore, concertina
Vicki Swan • nyckelharpa, bagpipes, flageolet
Jonny Dyer • harpsichord, accordion, gandola
EELGRINDERS
• Accordion – Steve Turner (29)
• Bagpipes [Border] – Jon Swayne
• Bagpipes [Border], Trumpet, Whistle – David Faulkner (2)
• Bagpipes [Border], Whistle – Lawrence Morgan-Anstee
• Engineer, Mixed By – Oliver Knight
• Producer, Arranged By, Mixed By – Eel Grinders
• Violin, Voice – Helena Torpy
Eel Grinders – Voyage – CD (Album), 2001 [r13124689] | Discogs
Eel Grinders / RootsWorld Recording Review
https://www.rootsworld.com/reviews/eelgrinders.shtml
The Wendigo – Frenetique
Music | The Wendigo
The stuff I learn here. The wendigo, or windigo, is a creature from Native North American folklore that is said to have an overwhelming desire to feed on human flesh.
Anne Marie Summers, Julian Sutton and Steve Tyler began playing together in 1995 in Newcastle Upon Tyne, often with a combination of bagpipes, melodeon and hurdy gurdy but sometimes also using clarinet, recorder or cittern, playing their own compositions along with some traditional dance tunes from Central France.
The trio never disbanded but circumstances have led to us playing infrequently.
Harrison Dipper
FolkWorld #74: Patterson Dipper
http://www.folkworld.de/74/e/patdip.html
Rather than the end of the search for Chamber Folk, I see it as the beginning.
Scandinavia certainly produces a lot of music in the field.
Here is a playlist I did a while back….There are some tracks that could definitely fit in
Oh most definitely. What a wonderful playlist, and right up my gatan. Already on track 9 – only 91 to go!
I’m glad you are enjoying it @thecheshirecat.
Chamber folk is a genre that thrives in Scandinavia.
The Rheingans attended Bollnäs folkhögskola (adult education college) in Sweden in their youth and mentioned their happy memories of those times when they played in Stockholm in 2023.
Vicki Swan is an accomplished player of that most wedish of instrument, the keyharp aka nyckelharpa.
It’s time to start a separate thread on Chamber Folk.
I think Swarbrick’s band Whippersnapper would fit in here too.
And Spiro, or are/were they a tad too lively?https://youtu.be/e2V0z5Ke24E
Yes, I had a think about them. There is definitely something about the string quartet with them, with their precision and interweaving. But yes, I think their clatter might upset the tearooms of Eastbourne.
Violinist Jane Harbour, being classically trained, may have other outlets that fit the bill. One of the great losses of lockdown was that she was about to work with Synergy Vocals (exponents of Steve Reich), but I think it never came to pass.