Most exciting album release of 2015?

Evening all,

I bought two records this week and as you can guess - one of them I have been waiting for, for about 3 years now.

Its by a man named John Grant and its his third studio album as a solo artist entitled 'Grey Tickles and Black Pressure'.

It's rather delicious and I'm having great fun listening to it - I did do an unboxing video which I shall post you youtube in the near future but a review video will be forthcoming as well. Let me digest the album fully first. So what style is it - haunting baritone vocals over synth pop (in places) tracks. Plenty of anger and rage mixed with beautiful melodies and unexpected harmonies. Everyone should hear this man sing. I was lucky to see him just over a year ago in a relatively small venue and he was just mesmerising.




The only other album bought this week was a 1980 release by Gary Numan called 'Telekon' for £1. Only a quid for a lovely slab of 80's synth tastic hits!! I was equally as happy that the original poster and fan club leaflet were in the sleeve, not bad at all for the measly price that I paid. More to follow on this as it needs a good clean.

A (busy) week in the life....

Good evening.

A lot happening in the world of music for me this week so where to start...... ah yes VINYL!

I bought three disks this week, all completely different.

1. Manic Street Preachers, Cooking - cleaning - flower arranging. This is a white label promo released in 2010 and limited to 300 pressings - finding these is like finding hens teeth. I found mine from a work colleague who sold it to me for £20.... bargain. The LP itself is a double full of remixes from the Journal for plague lovers album - of which I'm quite fond. Only had the chance to listen to the first disk so far but I'm happy with my purchase. Oh and its signed by the band as well - bonus!
2. David Bowie, Space Oddity (40th anniversary picture disk reissue). A number of 40th anniversary disks have been issued to mark the releases of some of Bowies seminal singles - this being the most recent. Space Oddity itself was released in 1969 b
   ut re issued in 1975 where it became his first number 1, so this is an anniversary reissue of a reissue.... I have most of the disks previous to this so I had to also get this. It is a good looking disk to be honest (see picture). I will never play this disk as I have both tracks that are issued but instead I am collecting the disks (like 5000 others!) as they are lovely items. £9.99 from my local independent retailer - £1 more than amazon but I'd rather keep them in business.
3. Ennio Morricone, A fistful of dollars/for a few dollars more soundtrack. Not an original but a 1970 pressing with the highlights of each film on each side. I love Morricone's compositions and have played this through several times already letting the atmospheric scene setting take me in. The final scene of For a Few Dollars More is one of my favourite scenes of all time and the music is a huge part of that. If you've never seen the film, the last 10 minutes make the whole thing worth it. Amazing value for 99p!!!

Playing on the turntable this week has been lots of Manic Street Preachers, Genesis and a Shorty Rogers which I picked up a few weeks ago. I'm very excited to be going to see Snarky Puppy in concert in Bristol tomorrow - should be a great gig.

Stay classy....