Rantings via Weblog (Click here to go to the Home Page!)

The songs "Any Colour" and "The Broadcast" were the first and final songs respectively from the album "Broadcast" by Cutting Crew way back in 1986. The opening track holds so much promise and the final track is beautifully melancholy and cynical.

Here the band perform a live segue with the songs swapped round. It's an interesting twist and the performance is super.



I wish I could find a live performance of "The Broadcast" on its own. It would be awesome to hear how they executed it live.

I confess I borrowed the album "The Bears" from a friend many years ago and have still to return it. It was so long ago that it is a vinyl record.

I love the music on this album. I knew Adrian Belew from his work on the three King Crimson albums from the early 1980s. He and Fripp made a great combo in the guitar realm. King Crimson was an altogether disciplined affair and you could tell. This Bears album has a diffrent sound.

Then I ran across this incarnation of Belew, running the musical numbers and turning them on their side with some different musicians. It's a pop/rock album of sorts but it is sufficiently unusual to catch the interest. The impression I get from this album is that it's much more comfortable than his Crimson work. I get the sense a bunch of musicians who are so totally on top of their game that they can lay down those tunes as tight as a gnat's chuff while all the time kicking back. They sound so relaxed yet completely together.

It's a joy.



And here's the bonus. This link will play you not only the whole of the album "The Bears", but also this other album I was not aware of - "Rise and Shine", which sounds just so great as well.

Double joy.

This is music you can listen to and enjoy or just slap on in the background and feel good to. Go on - try it!

Here is some super footage of King Crimson playing live from their 1980s period.

What hits me specially in this performance is how relaxedly on top of their game the musicians are. Their musicianship is technically superlative yet they really do make it look so easy, like they are just jamming away and having a blast.

I just have to collect these as I find them.

I'd never heard of this band before 5 minutes ago, and stumbled on to them while looking up some "Back to the Future" footage. Well, you can see how that happened...!

You will surely enjoy this!

Allan Holdsworth's unique playing style is surely indispensable for this tune. But the track was written by Steve Hunt so props of the maddest kind must surely go to him.

I have loved this piece since I first heard it back in 1989, when I bought Holdsworth's Secrets album. I was blown away by this music, which a college friend at the time said was like music that "intelligent aliens would listen to". Still to this day this is one of the best expressions I can find to describe Holdsworth's music.

Some musicians have loads of feeling but lack technical ability; others are replete with technique but leave you cold. Given the right song, this Holdsworth bloke nails both in spades.