The Galaxy Playlist

May 19, 2008

NEW stuff (oh boy oh boy oh boy!)!!!!

I love playing new material, and I have several such discs on hand tonight. We start with the new release from Portishead, issued to rave reviews on April 29th. The reviews are well earned - I think this could be one of the better releases of 2008. Then we go to the new live recording from Rush, which features some material not frequently heard in concert, and which has also earned some excellent reviews. Then we touch on another recent acquisition, a lovely septet recording from 2000 that features rarely heard versions of well-known works by Richard Strauss and Arnold Schoenburg (we only have time for one of the pieces; the other shall be saved for a later date). Happily, there is more new material to be heard on future shows.

Composer's name is listed where notable (i.e. Classical Performance, Jazz Performance).

For more information on any of the rock, pop and Jazz music featured on this program, I frequently utilize AllMusic , an excellent free database holding a huge plethora of information about music and the artists that make it.

Composer Performer Title Genre Label Notes
Portishead
Small
Electronica, "trip-hop"
Go! Discs/Mercury, 2008
 Thrilling new stuff from a band that has gotten a lot of airtime on this show in the past. Much deserved then, and this new material is just as interesting as past efforts. Yet the time we can afford the album doesn't really touch on the diversity of ideas that flow through this album. It really deserves a full listen in order to taste the full-bodied flavor - they hint at jazz, and give a healthy dose of folk-ish effects to their compositions. Yet it is fully experimental
Magic Doors
Threads
Plastic
Machine Gun
Led Zeppelin
What Is And What Should Never Be
Rock, Classic, Metal
BBC, 1997
 Recorded live in the BBC studios, 1969
No Quarter
Atlantic, 1973
 
Misty Mountain Hop
Atlantic, 1971
 
Four Sticks
  
The Ocean
Atlantic, 1973
 
Rush
Circumstances
Rock, Classic, Progressive
Atlantic, 2008
From the new live album, recorded in Amsterdam, October, 2007 (from the same tour that they are STILL on, and which they will still be on when they play St. Louis in June). I have chosen a few songs that don't get as much attention (although I have played Circumstances on the show numerous times), one that has been a concert regular of theirs (Dreamline, from Roll the Bones), and one of their new songs.
Between The Wheels
Dreamline
Far Cry
August Burns Red
Composure
Metal
Solid State, 2007
  
As I Lay Dying
Bury Us All
Metal Blade, 2007
 
Richard Strauss
Concertante Chamber Players
Metamorphosen
Classical, 20th Century, Chamber music
Kleos Classics/Helicon, 2000
This piece is more well known for the version scored for 23 strings (which I have played on the show a number of times), but here we have an earlier score for a septet (7 instruments), dated 3/31/1945, a month before the completion of the full score, but not discovered until 1990. Strauss wrote this in response to the destruction of Munich and Dresden in WWII. This was his last major score.

 

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Last Update: May 19, 2008

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