From: gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc
Subject: Son of the Non-Top Ten Chile (slight return - 6 of 5)
Date: 18 Dec 92 18:11:26 GMT
Reply-To: gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor)
Organization: Heurikon Corporation, Madison, WI

First, thanks for all the kind notes and letters which followed what I
thought was an entirely too rambly bunch of non-top-ten postings. I'm
adding an additional one to save myself from popping off even one more
reply to these two questions (mail is running 3/1 for 1 and 2). I 
appreciate your forebearance.

Question/Post #1 
"Thank you. This was an interesting list and I can figure out how much 
of a weenie you are enough to avoid a couple of the things on your 
list. Now, how do I go about finding the ones I *am* interested in??????"

Question/Post #2
"My G*d - don't you ever listen to anything *normal*? How come there's
no alternative music on this list? You think this stuff makes you cool?
Big f*ckin' deal."

So post 6 of 5 is a blatant attempt to deal with both sets of replies:
to provide slightly more information to those of you who are interested
in hunting up the stuff I listed, and to make a few brief comments to
those of you who were perplexed or angry that I didn't list stuff that
your local college/"alternative" station doesn't play. I post this because
it beats flaming back, and because the whole point of this in the first
place is to do for others what we like the net to do for us - to steer
us in the direction of something unknown.

Question/Post #1
"Do you have any catalog numbers for these discs so that I can actually 
*find* them at my usual ordering places? How foolish of me! I'm leaving 
off the catalog numbers for Arrested Development and the Orb because
you can probably even buy them down at the Mall (I went on a shopping
expedition over lunch and actually *looked*. They're both there. The
T-Bone Burnette was difficult to find, so I'll list *it*, though.

H. Gorecki "Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)" Nonesuch 79282-2
Arvo Part - "Miserere" ECM 847 839-2
John Harle - "Saxophone - Nyman/Westbrook/Bryars" Argo 433 847-2
Paul Lansky - "Homebrew" Bridge BCD-9035
Carl Stone - "Mom's" New Albion NA 049 CD

You should probably find a place with a reasonable classical section to
hunt these up. I'm putting both the Lansky and Stone in this batch 
because Bridge distributes as a classical label through Koch/Schwann,
so you ought to be able to locate it. The New Albion stuff tends, for
reasons I don't always understand, to get shelved with Classical no matter
what's on it. Try the handy shopping mall "20th Cent." bin!

Derek Bailey - "Guitar Solos, Vol. 2" Incus CD11
The Tahitian Choir "Rapa Iti" Triloka 7192-2

Count on that good local merchant who can get you jazz stuff. Cadence
Mail order might work on the Bailey (I've not got the address). As for
the ethnic stuff, I can't help much there.

Dome - "1/2" Mute Grey Area DOME 12
Dome - "3/4" Mute Grey Area DOME 34
SPK - "Zamia Lehmanni" Mute/Grey area SPK 3CD
Hector Zazou - "Sahara Blue" Crammed Discs/Made to Measure MTM32
Bill Nelson - "Blue Moons and Laughing Guitars" Caroline 1878-7

If you absolutely cannot find these anywhere or if there's not a 
Tower Records in your neighborhood, you could try AB-CD in New York
(33 North Main/Port Chester, NY 10873, 914-939-2223). Tell 'em Greg
Taylor sent you and nothing special will happen. I guarantee it.

P-Model "P-Model" Polydor Japan POCH-1128

Hmm. I'd suggest ordering this in the U.S. through somewhere like
the Kinokuniya bookstores (I saw a copy of this in their San Francisco
store last summer) or Sound City 2000 (PO box 22149/Portland,OR 97222
503-654-2196)

T-Bone Burnette "The Criminal Under My Own Hat" Columbia CK45213
The Orb - "UFOrb" Mercury/Big Life 
Arrested Development - "Three....in The Life Of" Chrysalis

Easy Mall stuff.

And now, we delve into the shadowy world of what might have been. Those
of you who recognize *none* of the other work may find something you
*do* know here.

The recent B.B. King box set is more blues than I usually take in at
one sitting, but L*rd, what an artist! One also gets to hear Lucille
being played for more than 2 notes in a row on the earlier cuts. And
"The Thrill is Gone" *is* one of the finest bits of late-night-driving
across-Wyoming-in-a-DeSoto-with-the-radio-on-and-a-broken-heart music
ever committed to oxide particles.

Tori Amos' cover of "Smell Like Teen Spirit" was a Zen moment. Too bad 
the rest of her work didn't do that for me.

Los Lobos have developed some courageous new muscles to flex, and
their collaboration with Mitchell Froom on "Kiko" created what I think
is their most interesting and compelling recording to date. Suzanne
Vega's work with Froom is a decent runner-up here, but the Los Lobos
stuff really integrated Froom's noise rather than just laying it 
alongside of their work (as the Vega sounds to me).

Thomas Dolby's "Astronauts and Heretics" is a real head-shaker; half of
the brilliant disc that I wanted to knock "The Golden Age of Wireless"
off my "best Dolby" list, a few crazy risks that seemed to work, and
some really flabby stuff that he did better on the singles versions
from "Close But No Cigar." Best Eddie Van Halen appearance of the year.

I put Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Heartbeat" on my non-best-of list *last*
year on the strength of the Japanese release. 6 months later, the addition
of Bill Frisell, Ingrid Chavez, and David Sylvian on the domestic
release only improved matters. Can't have it on the best list for
two years running. That's cheating.

Robert Palmer's "Addictions, Vol. 2" did some neat goofing around with 
the usual "greatest hits" format by actually having Palmer make the
choices and remix or recut the stuff he thought needed work. Like vol.
1, the changes were uniformly improvements, and got me to re-evaluate
my view of why he's never made a consistent record. Definitely on my 
"guilty pleasure" list.

I left Eno's "Nerve Net" off the list because I couldn't really lump it
with "The Shutov Assembly" in fairness, and because my judgements on how
risky or successful the album might be is a) coloured by my interest in
Eno's work b) based in some measure on having heard what the album was
"supposed" to sound like initially, and being mighty thankful that the
Miles-flavored "On the Corner" stuff like "Distributed Being" snuck
onto the album. One thing, though - a number of the remixes from the
single stuff are better than the album versions, he should have left
"I Fall Up" on, and booted "What Actually Happened" in favor of "Every-
body's Mother/Step Up" which was on the original. *Then* it would have
overruled my biases and made the list for sure.

The one that got away:
It always happens that you forget things. In my case, I've got to plead
"Out of Sight/Out of Earshot". Within hours of finishing the last article
of the series, one of my fellow programmers at the station returned a
disc to me that I'd have posted in the 5-parter *if I'd remembered it*,
which I didn't because the guy kept it forever because he was too in love
to let it go. Angelique Kidjo's "Logozo" on Mango is a heavenly little
African confection of music from Benin, Togo, and a Miriam Makeba cover
that is heavily shined and funked up. Guests include Manu Dibango and
Branford Marsalis. This disc shakes, rattles, and rules. It's also 
I imagine the number one disc I used this year when I needed to either
do housework or cheer up. You always neglect *something.*

Now, my conscience is clear! Nothing to do but sit back and eagerly await
the judgements of our colleagues. This is a pleasant feeling; all of you
should post your listing of the interesting work to cross your path
during the arbitrary circle of light which is the year. Clay? dx (I'm
sure I'll hear about the Rhino reissue series from you....)? Erland?
Eerke? Al? Andy? Malcolm?

resplendence in diverging,
Gregory
--
The law moves quickly in the rain/and chokes the world with memorials./The
courts accept the lowest superstition/into evidence. And we embrace quickly in
the rain,/conceiving a hale infant with hands to wrinkle/the bedsheets toward
it, wave by trough by wave./Gregory Taylor/Heurikon /Madison, WI/608-828-3385