history

Manchester Legends OASIS Released Stupendous Debut Masterpiece ‘DEFINITELY MAYBE’ 25 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

29 Augustus 2019

On 29 August 1994, 25 years ago, Manchester’s legends OASIS released one of the best albums ever according to my ears. DEFINITELY MAYBE was a stunning life-celebrating rock album that came at a perfect moment as The Stone Roses blew their minds on drugs for five years after their astonishing 1989 debut LP and only delivered a half great second longplayer 3 months after the Gallagher Brothers took the vacant place and scored a
No 1 hit LP in the UK with their ace debut. Except for the two stinkers Digsy’s Dinner and ‘Married With Children’ all songs were euphoric jackhammers with most of them sounding like ecstatic anthems millions would sing along word by word afterward. Historic score!

Thanks to NME hyping the band in their early days I went to London in August 1994
to see Oasis play in a small venue. An unforgettable experience it was. Mind-boggling electricity! It was the first of about 30 Oasis concerts I witnessed. Their overwhelming, rhapsodic live force was unmatchable for years to come. Best time of my life! Hallelujah!

Here come three of the several masterstrokes on ‘Definitely Maybe’…

– SUPERSONIC –

– LIVE FOREVER –

– CIGARETTES AND ALCOHOL –

Album in full…

OASIS: Website – Facebook –  Discography

JEFF BUCKLEY Released His Heavyhearted Debut Album ‘GRACE’ 25 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

23 August 2019

The late great JEFF BUCKLEY released GRACE his debut album, actually his only proper studio LP, 25 years ago today, on 23 Augustus 1994. A heavily emotional album with Buckley’s characteristic touching vox as one of the main instruments for his introspective and intimate inner journeys. Compelling, captivating and passionate from start to finish. Initially, the LP was largely ignored and peaked at number #149 in the U.S. but slowly but surely critical acclaim build up. Eventually Grace had sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

ALL MUSIC wrote: “Jeff Buckley was many things, but humble wasn’t one of them. Grace is an audacious debut album, filled with sweeping choruses, bombastic arrangements, searching lyrics, and above all, the richly textured voice of Buckley himself, which resembled a cross between Robert Plant, Van Morrison, and his father Tim. Grace sounds like a Led Zeppelin album written by an ambitious folkie with a fondness for lounge jazz.” Score: 5/5

Key tracks…

– HALLELUJAH –

– LAST GOODBYE –

– LOVER, YOU SHOULD’VE COME OVER –

Album in full…


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JEFF BUCKLEY: Facebook

PORTISHEAD Released Innovative Debut Album ‘DUMMY’ 25 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

22 August 2019

Bristol’s PORTISHEAD, one of the pioneers of trip-hop, released their innovative debut album DUMMY on 22 Augustus 1994, 25 years ago. An experimental piece of work where blues, soul and jazz were drenched into a sort of ambient sci-fi soundscapes transferring you to an otherworldly sonic universe.

NME Magazine wrote at the time “This is, without question, a sublime debut album. But
so very, very sad. From one angle, its languid slowbeat blues clearly occupy similar terrain to soulmates ‘Massive Attack’ and all of Bristol hip-hop’s extended family. But from another these are avant-garde ambient moonscapes of a ferociously experimental nature.”

Here are the three singles…

– NUMB –

– SOUR TIMES –

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– GLORY BOX –

Album in full…

PORTISHEAD: Facebook – All Albums

XTC Released Excellent Third Album ‘DRUMS AND WIRES’ 40 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

17 Augustus 2019

40 years ago, on 17 August 1979, British quartet XTC released their third, breakthrough, album DRUMS AND WIRES. It was labelled by many critics as a great new wave LP as it was issued in that musical era. To Turn Up the Volume‘s ears it sounds more like a tremendously creative guitar pop record remarkable for its inventive, clever and masterly songwriting. The LP contained one of their rare, but well-deserved, hit singles with ‘Making Plans For Nigel‘ not written by frontman Andy Partridge, like many of the other songs, but solely
by bassist Colin Moulding (also co-writer with Patridge on a couple of other tracks). The album peaked at #17 in the UK.

Here’s that splendid single…

Album in full…

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XTC: Biography – All Albums


The single’s sleeve

NEIL YOUNG – 25 Years Ago His ‘SLEEPS WITH ANGELS’ Album Came Out…

Posted on by JL

15 August 2019

25 years ago, on 16 August 1994, living legend NEIL YOUNG released his 20th album ‘SLEEPS WITH ANGELS’. Although it was never officially confirmed we can assume that
the LP’s title referred to Kurt Cobain who committed suicide in April of the same year.
It was Young‘s seventh collaboration with Crazy Horse. An emotional, downhearted and gloomy longplayer, except for fierce rocker ‘Piece Of Crap‘, bringing his darker self like he exposed on his 1975 masterwork Tonight’s The Night back to mind again.

ALL MUSIC wrote: “The album thus has a tired, mournful feel that is both compelling and off-putting. Young had not investigated such forbidding territory since the days of ‘Tonight’s The Night’ and ‘On the Beach’, and ‘Sleeps With Angels’ is on a par with those often harrowing works.” Full review here.

Three highlights…

– MY HEART –

– PIECE OF CRAP –

– PRIME OF LIFE –

Album in full…

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NEIL YOUNG: Facebook – All Albums

LED ZEPPELIN Played Their Last UK Concert 40 Years Ago In KNEBWORTH…

Posted on by JL

11 August 2019

This day 40 years ago, on 11 August 1979, heavy rock icons LED ZEPPELIN played their final concert (in the original line-up) on the grounds of Knebworth House near the village of Knebworth in the north of Hertfordshire, England . This was the second of two massive shows (the first a week earlier). The band had not played live for two years since the death of frontman Robert Plant‘s son during the band’s 1977 North American tour, and they had not performed in Great-Britain for four years. More than 150.000 people attended
the historic event.

Here are three highlights…

– WHOLE LOTTA LOVE –

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– ROCK AND ROLL – 

– BLACK DOG –

LED ZEPPELIN: Facebook – Website

THE STOOGES – Eponymous Debut Album Is 50…

Posted on by JL

5 Augustus 2019

This day 50 years ago, on 5 August 1969, Michigan rock legends THE STOOGES fronted by icon IGGY POP released their eponymous debut LP. At the time it came out many critics ignored it or disapproved it like American magazine Rolling Stone that called it: “loud, boring, tasteless, unimaginative and childish”.

Only later after second LP ‘Funhouse‘ (1970) and ‘Raw Power‘(1973) the media changed their point of view and when punk happened suddenly it was as if Iggy Pop and The Stooges invented it. I agree with what ALL MUSIC wrote in retrospect about that self-titled debut: “the band managed the difficult feat of sounding ahead of their time and entirely out of their time, all at once.”

It wasn’t an overall perfect record but it became a monumental classic for the right reasons: for its primitive and unheard rawness, its controversial no future punkiness
and Pop‘s eccentric and fuck you vocality. Nobody sounded that nasty and utterly cool!

I guess you all know these three raw crackerjacks…

– NO FUN –

– I WANNA BE YOUR DOG –

– 1969 –

Album in full…

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THE STOOGES: Biography

British Electro Explorers ORBITAL Released Third Longplayer ‘SNIVILISATION’ 25 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

3 August 2019

British exploring electro duo ORBITAL released their third longplayer ‘SNIVILISATION on
4 August 1994, 25 years ago. The album came out at the time the government launched the Criminal Justice Act, the law that gave British Police greater legal powers to break up unlicensed raves, exactly the 24-hour party events where Orbital made its name. The LP’s ‘Are We Here? ‘ single featured the track ‘Are We Here? (Criminal Justice Bill?)’, four minutes of complete silence. The album peaked at #4 in the UK and sold more than 80.000 copies.

ALL MUSIC wrote: “Musically, the album delivers on the diverse promises of early B-sides “Choice” and “Belfast,” with more harbingers to their thrash background — especially on “Quality Seconds” — and the addition of a third member, vocalist Alison Goldfrapp, on two songs. The shuffling, quasi-Eastern jungle rhythms of “Are We Here?,” a beautiful piano run to begin “Kein Trink Wasser,” and the glorious ambient climax “Attached” also reflect the fact that ‘Snivilization’ is Orbital’s most varied LP.” Full review here – Score: 4/5

Here’s that fab single ‘Are We Here?…

Album in full…

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ORBITAL: Facebook


Still making eye-catching music…

TALKING HEADS Released Their Outstanding LP ‘FEAR OF MUSIC’ 40 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

2 August 2019

The name of the band: TALKING HEADS

The name of the album: FEAR OF MUSIC – the band’s third LP

The name of the day/year of release: Friday 3 August 1979 – 40 years ago

The name of the reviewing magazine: ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE that wrote back then “‘Fear of Music’ is Talking Heads’ most elaborate production so far, teeming with overdubs and effects the group doesn’t try to reproduce in concert. Sounds emerge out of nowhere, echoes tangle the beat, instrumental timbres form unholy alloys… They use a simple device: repetition. Unswerving rhythms, immobile harmonies. Each tune is a chain of sections linked by rhythm, each section a matrix of interlocking riffs… Byrne sings like a Mouseketeer trapped in an endless anything-can-happen day: rattled, wide-eyed, quavery, breaking into glossolalia whenever he runs out of words. Sometimes he slides into sync with the other members of the band, sometimes he dithers above them in lunatic abandon” – Full review here

The name of Turn Up The Volume’s fav tracks: Life During Wartime / Heaven / Cities

– LIFE DURING WARTIME –

– HEAVEN –

– CITIES –

Album in full…

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TALKING HEADS: Facebook

German Legends CAN Released Their Debut Album ‘MONSTER MOVIE’ 50 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

1 August 2019

Fifty years ago, on 2 August 1969 German musical innovators CAN released their debut longplayer ‘MONSTER MOVIE‘. Their very first work entitled ‘Prepared to Meet Thy Pnoom‘ was actually ready for release the year before but the band found no label who wanted to invest money in it and put it out (those recordings were eventually released on a LP in 1981 as part of ‘Delay 68‘).

So MONSTER MOVIE became CAN‘s first official LP displaying their creative appetite for mixing – in their weird, spellbinding way – psychedelia, rock and blues, free jazz, avant-garde and any sound/instrument that could serve their experimental repetitive rhythm textures and motorik beat jams, later labeled as Krautrock. This wasn’t their best work
yet, but a most intriguing introduction to their fascinating far-out sonic vision.

ALL MUSIC wrote: “Though ‘Monster Movie’ was the first full-length album in what would become a sprawling and often genre-defining discography, ‘Can’ were on a level well ahead
of the curve even in their most formative days. Recorded and released in 1969, ‘Monster Movie’ bears many of the trademarks that ‘Can’ would explore as they went on, as well as elements that would set the scene for the burgeoning Krautrock movement… Even in their earliest phases, Can were making their name by blowing away all expectations and notions that rock & roll had limits of any kind.” Score: 4.5/5 – Full review here

Album in full…

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CAN: Fan Facebook – Biography – All Albums


Back sleeve