The wind is picking up. A hurricane is coming. Run, Dorothy! There's been a lot going on in Crotchety Land recently, and I haven't been paying attention to what's happening in the wider world. In particular, I haven't been keeping an eye on the Mercury Music Prize. While I've been distracted, the winner of this…Read more This Could Be Texas
Album
The Story of Mr. Bogd, part 1
Once upon a time, there were four musicians from Sweden who decided to form a prog rock band. They called themselves Ritual. Over the next 15 years, they recorded and released four studio albums and one live. Their fifth studio album, The Story of Mr. Bogd, part 1, was released earlier this month, after a…Read more The Story of Mr. Bogd, part 1
Lives Outgrown
I retired in the autumn of 2014. The calendar says that's less than 10 years ago, but it feels like a completely different life. Instead of writing software for a business making subsea welding robots, I now manage a website and provide I.T. support for a charity that offers educational opportunities to those in their…Read more Lives Outgrown
The Edge of the Land
There were several candidates for this week's post. Candacraig's prog/art rock album, Lit by Lightning, nearly made the grade but, in the end, felt a little too formulaic. Storm Corrosion, a collaboration between Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) and Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth), was billed as "more spacious, ambient waters from either of their main gigs", and…Read more The Edge of the Land
A Sky Full of Ghosts
"A lot of those stars actually died millions of years ago. It's just they're so far away, the light they created before they died hasn't finished reaching us yet ... You're looking at a sky full of ghosts." Amie Kaufman Ghost stars. We see them, but they are not really there. They were there once,…Read more A Sky Full of Ghosts
Mordant Lake
Back in November 2022 I reviewed the Polarchoral album by Grice. In that piece, I noted that Grice is not backed by a big promoter and doesn’t do a lot of self-promotion. The implication was that this artist deserves more attention than you might think from the sparse mentions in the media. His marketing team…Read more Mordant Lake
Tom Penaguin
If you are wondering what a penguin has to do with a Zeppelin, read that title again. There's an 'a' in Tom Penaguin, and he's French, so his name is pronounced more like penaga than penagwin. And the airship is from the artwork for his experimental project, Soundtrack for Places I've Never Been Vol 1.…Read more Tom Penaguin
Strange Medicine
Get your snake oil here! Everyone who reads a music blog must know the pleasure that comes from listening to your favourite music. Some people even think that music is an effective therapy for a wide range of mental illnesses. But is it a miraculous cure for all your ills, or is it just snake…Read more Strange Medicine
Rising
Icarus Rising The stars must be perfectly aligned just now for London-based jazz saxophonist, Jasmine Myra. She released her second album earlier this month; she is currently on tour in the UK1; and (this is the clincher) one of my sources played an extract from the album for me a couple of weeks ago on…Read more Rising
Entelecheia
As far as I can make out, 'entelecheia' means "the realisation of potential". The idea is that many things in nature have potential, but it can only be realised when the conditions are right. So, for example, an acorn has the potential to become a mighty oak tree, but it can only fulfil that potential…Read more Entelecheia
Crotchety Man 