Here's a problem for you: What do you get if you add a solute to a solvent? That's right, you get a solution. But that doesn't mean you can dissolve every problem. When I was a student, I had a summer vacation job at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, an official establishment that analyses…Read more Solution
Album
Fleeting Future
A single mother and a married man enter into an affair with the understanding that their relationship is purely sexual. Though they agree the relationship has no future, they find themselves increasingly drawn into each other's company.Imdb The present is always fleeting. As soon as it has come, it has gone again. And yet it…Read more Fleeting Future
To Have You Near
You might think that an album titled To Have You Near would be full of love songs, but this one takes the broader theme of kinship and community. It starts, appropriately enough, with the place we share with our nearest and dearest: home. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kIudNn4LTAS0SHR_j9xDmzp5700YfME6Q When it's time to step outside the door, we meet with…Read more To Have You Near
Try!
When I see the word "try" my first thought is always the famous saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again". Then there's W. C. Fields' rather more realistic and much more entertaining slant, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about…Read more Try!
In Disequilibrium
"Well, it's all topsy-turvy", sings Peter Hammill as his second collaboration with Isildurs Bane starts to swing. "Everything's turned upside-down", he continues as In Disequilibrium, part 1 kicks off their latest album. It's the first section of a three-part title track, and it sets us up nicely for 45 minutes of good, old-fashioned symphonic prog…Read more In Disequilibrium
Marscape
Marscape is, effectively, a prequel to the early Brand X albums. It's the Robin Lumley and Jack Lancaster input to Unorthodox Behaviour and Moroccan Roll. If you pay attention, you can hear all four permanent members of the 1970s line-up of Brand X in this Marscape; some of the tunes were carried over to the…Read more Marscape
Altitude
The Airbus Perlan II glider in flight. On 2nd September 2018 the Airbus Perlan II glider claimed a record for "the highest sustained flight by a winged, manned, subsonic aircraft", recording an altitude of 76,000 ft (approximately 23 km) soaring over Argentina on the high stratospheric winds pushed upwards by the Andes mountain range. Another…Read more Altitude
Unremembered
It seems to me that 'unremembered' is not quite the same as 'forgotten'. A forgotten memory is lost forever; unremembered events remain in the locked mental storage cupboard, waiting to be rediscovered when mistress Serendipity stumbles upon the key again. In 2011, the vocal ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, commissioned the American composer, Sarah Kirkland Snider,…Read more Unremembered
Sympatheia
For the next two weeks or so, Calum Graham, acoustic guitarist extraordinaire, is running a crowdfunding campaign for his next album. He has appeared in these pages twice before (Waiting, Billie Jean) and on both occasions I have marvelled at his work. CG's last album, Thread of Creation (2019), was self-released and doesn't appear on…Read more Sympatheia
Kaipa
Ura Kaipa was the name of a Swedish chieftain, and also the original name of the Swedish prog rock band, Kaipa. Less original was the title of their first album, Kaipa, which was released in 1975. The band was unknown to Crotchety Man until it was brought to my attention by the latest issue of…Read more Kaipa
Crotchety Man 