NWR The "What are we listening to?" Thread

[Paul Anderson]

No Cocteau Twins is a shock!!!

Very puzzling, especially as Cocteau Twins were probably 4AD's biggest earner. The title of the anniversary album is a lyric lifted from Cherry-Coloured Funk though.

 

[Geordie Torr]

Very puzzling, especially as Cocteau Twins were probably 4AD's biggest earner. The title of the anniversary album is a lyric lifted from Cherry-Coloured Funk though.

But I think less puzzling given that they're cover versions and who'd be mad enough to try to cover the Cocteaus?

 

[Paul Anderson]

But I think less puzzling given that they're cover versions and who'd be mad enough to try to cover the Cocteaus?

I missed that. Makes perfect sense now. I have to go and Google now to see if anyone has ever covered a Cocteau Twins' song.

 

[Paul Anderson]

Unfortunately the first one I found was a foul-mouthed, talentless, Miley Cyrus making a miserable attempt at Heaven or Las Vegas. The band sounded like they may have made a half-decent effort of it but I gave up less than 10 seconds into her 'singing'. Utterly awful. So bad I won't even post a link to it here.

 

[Jeremy Caan]

There's a new volume just out but this first volume is a playfully referential synthesis of 20thC pop and jazz with Middle Eastern styles:

 

[Alex Lake]

On the way down to WIMPs I greatly enjoyed reliving some of my youth listening to this at reasonable volume. Although it seems pretty obscure to me, I dare say many of the forum are way more familiar than I.
I was disappointed in a way that they never made it big, The cover always made me squirm, though, so maybe that's part of the reason ;-)

 

[Jeremy Caan]

On the way down to WIMPs I greatly enjoyed reliving some of my youth listening to this at reasonable volume. Although it seems pretty obscure to me, I dare say many of the forum are way more familiar than I.
I was disappointed in a way that they never made it big, The cover always made me squirm, though, so maybe that's part of the reason ;-)

View attachment 20376

Ouch!

 

[Russell Faulkner]

Nirvana - Bleach (white vinyl) did a good job of keeping passers by out of the shop today.

 

[Po-yu Sung]

A very famous and senior violinist made some awfully stupid (to be frank, racist) comments, saying Korean (or Japanese) don't know how to sing. "it's not in their DNA".

He should listen to this young tenor.

 

[Saina Nieminen]

A very famous and senior violinist made some awfully stupid (to be frank, racist) comments, saying Korean (or Japanese) don't sing. "it's not in their DNA".

Who is this racist violinist? Lovely voice and he even made a diminuendo on the high c close to the end which is always impressive. (Though did he transpose it down a bit? I don't have absolute pitch but it still sounded like he might have transposed it down a bit? Impressive even if so. I'm a flautist not a singer but diminuendos on high notes are always difficult when lungs and diaphragms are involved.)

What that ignorant violinist does not understand is that lots of Japanese singers have been involved in the early music revival and some of the best Bach Cantata recordings for example have been made by largely Japanese singers. But even outside of early music there have been plenty of stars in mainstream opera. And no doubt Bahg will soon be in that category.

I do feel kind of bad that after that performance I still went and listened to my all time favorite recording of that aria. It's in the wrong language, the recording is over 100 years old so the quality is bad but I don't think I've ever heard such glorious sound out of a human.

 

[Alex Lake]

Who is this racist violinist? Lovely voice and he even made a diminuendo on the high c close to the end which is always impressive. (Though did he transpose it down a bit? I don't have absolute pitch but it still sounded like he might have transposed it down a bit? Impressive even if so. I'm a flautist not a singer but diminuendos on high notes are always difficult when lungs and diaphragms are involved.)

Presumably this

Violinist apologizes for using racial stereotypes in Juilliard class

Famed Israeli American master violinist Pinchas Zukerman issued an apology Monday for making “culturally insensitive” remarks about Asian people while teaching a master class at Juil…

thehill.com

 

[Po-yu Sung]

Who is this racist violinist? Lovely voice and he even made a diminuendo on the high c close to the end which is always impressive. (Though did he transpose it down a bit? I don't have absolute pitch but it still sounded like he might have transposed it down a bit? Impressive even if so. I'm a flautist not a singer but diminuendos on high notes are always difficult when lungs and diaphragms are involved.)

Pinchas Zukerman. You would have thought he knows what is racial stereotype!

THE SCOOP | Renowned Violinist Pinchas Zukerman Under Fire For ‘Offensive Cultural Stereotypes’

Violinist Pinchas Zukerman has come under fire — and apologized — for remarks made during a recent online master class for The Julliard School.

www.ludwig-van.com

Edit: I played two versions side by side, I don't feel much difference, besides the audio version of another tenor sounds a little bit brighter. Might be a tiny bit tuning difference, I don't have absolute pitch either. Or just the 'colour' of his voice. He uses a little bit more cover and creates a more soft lyric tone compare to other 'ringing' opera house tenor.

For McCormack's Faust, as well as George Thill's, I think they represent a kind-of-faded singing tradition, when some people only worship Franco Corelli's heroic singing... He is of course a great tenor (his French diction is not great though), but I just don't think that kind of singing fully express the gentleness of Gounod or Massenet.

 

[Tom Cannavan]

Well, I rest my case:

 

[Ian Hampsted]

Another outstanding track, ‘We Used to Know‘ from Jethro Tull from their 1969 album Stand Up.

 

[Paul Cantlon]

Shameless plug - I've been listening to my wife's debut album that's due out in November. Exciting times

 

[Mark Palmer]

Well, I rest my case:

Where’s the “astounding” button when you need it?

 

[Tom Cannavan]

Where’s the “astounding” button when you need it?

I saw them live at exactly that time at the Glasgow Apollo. At the end they rip off their paper hazmat suits and throw them into the audience. I got singer Mark Mothersbaugh's jacket - a bit torn, but still a fabulous memento I also had to produce a three minute film as part of my studies at Glasgow School of Art where I was a student at the time and did it to this track. Shot on cine film and sadly I don't have a copy.

 

[Dan Vyvyan]

I've been listening this quite a lot recently - I like the sound of the titular lady better than her namesake variant. This performance is even more raucous than Joe Cocker.

 

[Paul Anderson]

I saw them live at exactly that time at the Glasgow Apollo. At the end they rip off their paper hazmat suits and throw them into the audience. I got singer Mark Mothersbaugh's jacket - a bit torn, but still a fabulous memento I also had to produce a three minute film as part of my studies at Glasgow School of Art where I was a student at the time and did it to this track. Shot on cine film and sadly I don't have a copy.

Sadly, I have never seen them live but bought their 1st album on release (red vinyl). They certainly have a unique and quirky style which I love. Gut Feeling intro is one of my all-time favourite intros.

Devo - Gut Feeling

 

[Jonathan Kalman]

I've been listening this quite a lot recently - I like the sound of the titular lady better than her namesake variant. This performance is even more raucous than Joe Cocker.

I saw Leon Russell perform a number of times at his peak and all performances were outstandingly good. He was a wonderful musician (and songwriter) and was very charismatic on stage. His band and backup singers were always first class. Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of The Concert for Bangladesh and a friend of mine who had the good luck to have been at both shows called me to wax nostalgic. We had differing opinions of the best performances but we both agreed that Leon's 'Jumping Jack Flash/Youngblood' medley was one of them.

 

[Tom Cannavan]

A few months back I rediscovered my own cover version of Bowie's 'Everyone Says Hi' that I did a Mike Oldfield on about five or six years ago, arranging and playing the whole thing myself on various instruments, acoustic, electric and Midi. I'd kind of forgotten about it but sneaked it onto YouTube. I'm quite proud of the outcome, though don't know that I'd ever have the time and patience to do it again (unless I retire...)

 

[Po-yu Sung]

We were planning to go to Salzburg Festival but obviously that is not possible (Austria bans UK travellers despite UK now lists it as green zone).
Luckily we can still see some performance from Arte.
This is Don Giovanni, directed by Romeo Castellucci. Some puzzling stage design, but more puzzling is their change on score and keyboard parts for recitativo. They even add some new music in. Otherwise it‘s actually a quite musically effective performance with some very good singing.

I solved one puzzle (I think)

 

[George Marshall]

 

[Dan Vyvyan]

This truly appalling fiddle abuse accompanies the greatest bar scene in 1980s movies (arguably of all time) - which one?

 

[David Pope]

It's Friday afternoon and I'm looking forward to the weekend. Also feeling a bit tired and in need of an uplift. So I'm listening to Mahler's lovely fourth symphony, played by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abbado, with Renée Fleming as soloist. A splendid performance.

I'm still exploring a lot of British music. Yesterday it was the piano concerto and 3rd symphony by John Joubert. Good stuff.